First of all, thanks to all my readers, reviewers and of course followers. Thank you for the support.
To Guest, I'm glad that you enjoyed it that much, and yes the updates are frequent XD as it seems my brain doesn't shut up about the chapter until I write and post it.
To Carriemarrie78, I am very happy that I was able to put a smile on your face, and thank you for the feedback.
To KCrane, all of those ideas are on my mind, but all in good time, I promise, and I hope this chapter answers some of your questions.
To jcat30, bear in mind that Charming's name isn't James, and that James was his brother, and we still don't know what his real name is yet, and Snow was still calling him David in the premiere, and calling him Charming seems a bit ridiculous, so we're sticking with David for now xD. As for Ruby, I like the name more than Red, and Gold is shorter than Rumplestilskin. But thank you for the feedback nonetheless, and I hope you enjoy it.
To all, here's the next chapter.
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The next morning when David woke up, it took him a few seconds to realize where he was, as it was unfamiliar to him. After he finished his shower and got dressed, he went downstairs. As he was climbing down the stairs, he heard laughter coming from the kitchen, and walking in he saw Regina and Henry arm wrestling. Regina looked up as he walked in, allowing Henry the time to gain the upper hand and win, "YES" he victoriously yelled, as Regina mock pouted and glared at him, to which he smiled cheekily at her; that smile which she was never able to resist, and she found herself chuckling.
"Good Morning, guys." David said, as he bent down and kissed Henry on the head.
"Morning, Gramps" Henry chirpily said.
"Morning, David. Did you sleep well?" she asked, and he couldn't help but notice that she was a lot more relaxed than the woman he normally saw. And only now he realized why Snow was dead set against killing her; she had those memories of the kind and loving stepmother and she couldn't bear the thought of hurting her, same for Henry.
"Yes, I did. Very well actually. I was out as soon as my head touched the pillow, you?"
"Out like a light, and slept soundly." She answered, "Finding out that your dead daughter isn't really dead, loves you, and still has faith in you. Actually that all your children still have faith in you after everything you have done, does wonders for your mood." She said with a smile on her face.
David chuckled, "yes I suppose it does."
"What do you want for breakfast? Henry wants pancakes, and I'm having French Toast, so any special requests?" she asked, as she continued to move around the kitchen, getting the stuff she will need.
"French toast will be fine, thanks." He said, as he took a seat on the island next to Henry.
"Don't mention it." She said and she started making the pancakes for Henry.
"That thing you did with the mirror in the mausoleum, can you do it with any mirror, or does it have to be this one?" he asked her.
"No, it doesn't. Now that magic is back I can do it with any mirror. Why?"
"Well, we will need to check in on them from time to time, so I was going to tell you to bring the mirror here, if it is just this one, instead of going there every time. But I guess now, we can have a 24/7 live feed"
Regina chuckled, "Unfortunately, we cant have it all the time. I can do it as much as we want, but only for a few minutes at a time. I know stupid, but there is nothing I can do about it." She explained.
"Can we take a look after breakfast?" Henry asked, with an eager expression on his face.
"You read my mind." His mother answered him, with a huge smile, and a warm,loving look in her eyes.
"In that case, how about we help you to hurry things along?" David said, as he got off his stool and dramatically clapped his hands, and rubbed them.
"Sure" Henry said, jumping off his stool, and he immediately started giving David a tour of the kitchen, and Regina told them what they can do.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, "this must be Ruby." Henry said, as he ran to open the door. A few seconds later he walked back into the kitchen, with Ruby following close by.
"Morning, guys." Ruby greeted.
"Morning, Ruby" came from Regina and David.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Regina asked her.
"Um, nothing, thanks. I already ate."
"No way, you have to try mom's pancakes. She makes killer ones, no pun intended." Henry said, causing the three adults to burst out laughing at his last sentence.
"Oh Henry" Regina said, though her laughs, as she kissed his head.
30 minutes later, the table was set, with a big plate of pancakes, and another of French toast in the middle of the table, with Regina sitting at the head of the table, Henry on her right with David next to him, and Ruby on her left. Breakfast didn't take long, and it passed in stories and laughs; mainly Ruby telling them stories of Ariel, the funny ones to avoid causing Regina any pain. Although Regina had tears in her eyes, anyways. But they were happy ones.
After they finished and the plates were in the sink, Ruby turned to David, "Are you gonna check on the dwarfs before you head to the station?" she asked.
"Yes, but first I need to check on my wife and daughter." He told her.
"huh?" Ruby asked, and confusion was evident on her face.
"I can use the mirror to check on them, kind of like how I found out about her being alive. And no, I cant leave it on all day." She said, as she noticed Ruby's optimistic look.
"Oh, well, better than nothing." Ruby said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Exactly. So shall we?" Regina said, as she waved with her hand in the general direction of her hallway mirror.
The 4 occupants of the house moved to where the mirror was, and in less than a minute, the ripple showed and faded away to show a scene.
Mulan was sitting on a rock, with a knife and tree branch in her hands, carving something from it. Hook sat next to her with his hands tied, and leaning on a wooden pole behind him. He was watching, as Aurora, Snow, and Emma were gathering wood for fire and such, as well as any spare food that may have survived Cora's attack, and Ariel was moving between tents and cottages, using her magic to fix them, so they can use them again.
"Is it me, or is she making the insides of cottages more exposed to the outside?" Hook asked Mulan, as he pointed to where Ariel was moving back and forth.
"She's making sure she can see inside of them, so when we sleep inside, Cora cant sneak up and surprise us." Mulan answered him, "If she catches you staring at her like this, you wont live long enough to worry about Cora." She added. Hook's head snapped in her direction, before he looked back at Ariel, "I'm sorry, I cant help it." He told her. And they both saw Snow, Emma and Aurora walk back to them, with food and water in their hands.
"We found some food that survived the massacre, and Ariel said that food wont be a problem, since she can basically create it out of thin air. And since Cora already knows about her, there's no fear of using magic." Emma said, as she handed Mulan and Hook their food and water.
"What are you doing?" Snow asked Mulan.
"Making wooden swords." Mulan answered, as she took a sip of the water.
"Why?" Aurora asked.
"Because we need to teach you and Emma how to use swords properly." Ariel's voice came from behind them.
They all turned around and saw her moving towards them.
Regina's tears were flowing at the sight of her daughter, and couldn't help but smile and she reach out to stroke the image of her daughter walking towards the little group.
Ruby was smiling at the sight of her friend; she had missed her, and she was glad to see that she hadn't changed.
Henry and David were glad to see Snow and Emma, alive and safe. Although none of the 4 people knew who Hook was, let alone why he couldn't keep his eyes off of Ariel; although Regina could feel her mother lion instincts start to bubble up.
"You think Cora will challenge us to a sword fight?" Emma asked in a sarcastic tone.
"No, but she is more than capable of raising an army of dead soldiers at her mercy and sending them after us, a distraction, so you need to learn, both of you".
"But why wooden swords?" Aurora asked.
"Neither one of you handled a sword before in her life, and call me old fashioned but I would like to keep my body parts where they belong." Ariel answered.
"I've used a sword before." Emma stated.
"When?" Ariel asked.
"When I killed the dragon, Gold gave me David's sword. And I don't think I was that bad."
"Well, using a sword to deflect fireballs is one thing, they can be seen a mile away, but hand to hand combat is different. So we're still using the wooden swords, until I see that if you used a real one, this wont end up a meat carnage."
"What dragon?" Aurora finally asked.
"I don't know, she was a friend of Regina's. But Regina trapped her in Storybrooke in the form of a dragon." Emma explained.
"You killed Maleficent." Aurora said, shocked.
"Of course I did. Why didn't I think of that!" Emma said, with a dramatic tone.
Ariel was giggling, and noticing the glare in her direction, "Sorry, but I'm thinking it is hard finding out about all that."
"Ya think?!" was Emma's answer, which only caused Ariel to laugh even harder.
"They're not finished yet." Mulan informed Ariel.
"It's alright, we've got nothing but time on our hands." Ariel said, before turning to Snow, "When was the last time you used a sword?" she asked.
"28 years ago. So I think I may be a little rusty."
"Let's find out then." Ariel said, as she drew Mulan's sword from its satchel, as Snow drew hers.
They walked a few feet from the group, as Emma and Aurora took seats on rocks to watch.
"This should be interesting." David's voice came, as he stared at the mirror, earning laughs from the rest of the group.
Snow and Ariel started fencing, and it didn't take long before it seemed like they were both battling their sworn enemy. When suddenly Ariel had the sword's tip at Snow's neck.
"You let your guard down." Ariel panted.
"Yes, I know. Again." Snow said. And they started the match again, a few minutes later Ariel ended up on the wrong end of the sword, "Good" Ariel panted. Snow put her sword down, locked her arms through Ariel's and walked back to the group.
"This is super weird. Finding out your mother is a fairytale character was weird, but finding out that she is not the demoiselle in distress they make her out to be, is even weirder." Emma said, causing Ariel's eyebrows to hit her hairline.
"Demoiselle in distress?!" Ariel asked in shock.
"Yea, she ran away from her jealous stepmother, stayed with the dwarfs, and then married prince charming. End of story."
"Jealous stepmother?!"Ariel's shock seemed to only deepen.
"Yep, the writer said that your mother held a grudge against mine, because she was jealous of her beauty." Emma said, and at that Ariel burst out laughing.
"Oh, it only gets worse. When we get back, remind me to get you the books to read them." Emma teased.
"Oh, please tell me my mother is not responsible for distorting our lives like that? I mean jealous, seriously? She cursed the entire forest out of jealousy."
"Actually, only the book Henry has ends with the curse, the others end with Regina turning herself into an old hag, and falling off a cliff after poisoning Snow. And no she's not, the other world has them but with incredibly different details. I mean Daniel is not mentioned anywhere, not even in Henry's book" Emma clarified.
"Well, I don't think he would be." Ariel said, her voice a bit chocked up from laughing.
The 3 adults and Henry were looking at the interaction, and none of them could suppress the happiness, that they were alright as well as bonding. But Regina couldn't help but notice Hook, and the way he was looking at her daughter.
"They're ready." Mulan declared, as she produced two wooden swords, Ariel took them from her and tossed Emma one, "Come on, let's see how well you fair in this, Sheriff" Ariel said, winking at the end.
"No, I…."Emma started saying, then took one look at Ariel's face, and her shoulders slouched in defeat, "Oh you're Regina's daughter alright." She said, and when she noticed the questioning look Ariel gave her she added, "she uses the same glare when she wants something done."
"Oh, well, you know what they say, like mother like daughter. Shall we?" Ariel said, grinning. And Emma knew she was in for a hell of a training session.
As they walked a little further from the group, a giant water ball appeared, and was heading straight for Ariel.
"ARIEL WATCH OUT" Aurora and Snow yelled at the same time. Ariel looked up, but didn't have time to react, before the ball hit her and left her soaked.
Mulan was on alert in a second, and Emma was looking frantically around her, and Snow was at Ariel's side.
"I thought you said you can sense Cora and her magic?" Snow said, as she worriedly inspected Ariel over.
"That wasn't Cora. That's my father, he's ashore and he wants to talk" she explained, as she wiped her face, and got her hair out of her face, "come on, let's go" she said.
"We can wait here." Emma told her.
"Not a chance in hell. None of you will leave my sight, till we deal with Cora." She told them, and the small group moved to the shore.
When they go there, two mer-people could be seen, a man and a woman; King Triton and Queen Athena, as they guessed.
"Oh thank God, Ariel" Athena exclaimed as soon as she saw her daughter, and engulfed her in a tight hug.
Regina couldn't help the stab of pain and jealousy she felt, she knew Athena was her mother and all, but still, she got to hold her daughter while she cant. Regina put her arms around Henry, as some sort of reassurance. David knew what was going though her mind, so he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, to which she replied with a grateful smile.
"Mom, I cant breathe, you're suffocating me." Ariel said, as she hugged her mother back.
"You're a mermaid sweetie, you can survive for a while without breathing." Athena said, without even loosening her hold on Ariel.
Athena was gorgeous as well, but it was easy to know that Ariel wasn't hers. Athena had light brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes. Triton's hair was slightly darker, but his eyes were blue and had fair skin as well.
Ariel looked at her father, "Daddy, a little help here." Ariel begged him.
"Athena, darling, you're suffocating the poor girl" Triton said, as he chuckled, and had to pull on Athena's arms a few times before she finally let go.
"What was that about? I just saw you this morning." She told her parents, as her father hugged her too.
"We saw what happened." Athena informed her.
"Oh. Well, I'm fine mom. She didn't hurt me, she never could" Ariel assured her mom.
"Yes, but she recognized you, and she will keep trying." Athena said, and her voice was laced with fear and worry.
"Yes, true. But so what? It wont be the first time, she tried throughout mom's pregnancy and failed, and tired again when I was born, and still failed. I think if I was capable of defending myself then, it wont be a problem now." She told her.
"When your mother was pregnant, you used her magic as well. And besides, you said it yourself, baby you left some magic inside of Regina to help her stand up to Cora, and…" Athena's frantic rant was cut off my Ariel's hand on her cheeks.
"And even after I left a little something for mom to defend herself with, she still couldn't kill me when I was born. You know I have enough magic to go around, and still be more powerful than her. I know it's scary and you're worried but you have nothing to fear."
"You left some of your magic for Regina?" Emma asked.
"Yea, she had her own magic, but I knew it wont be enough against Cora, so I left a little behind just in case." Ariel told her.
Snow smiled at how protective Ariel was, even as a baby, she was perceptive and smart.
"How did you guys know what happened?"Snow asked.
"We use water as a looking glass, and I was able to watch what happened, after it was over" Triton calmly explained.
"Well, I'm fine, she didn't even move one hair out of it's place. So can you please go back to Atlantis? I don't like the fact that you're out here, it's too exposed and Cora could hurt you." Ariel said.
"We have magic too, darling." Triton told her.
"I know, but it wont hold up against Cora, please." She pleaded with them.
They both sighed, and nodded.
"Take care, darling. And I hope this isn't goodbye." Athena said, as she hugged, well suffocated Ariel again.
"It wont be goodbye, mom. I'll still come back, I promise." Ariel said as she let go of her mother.
"No matter where you are, you will always be my little girl" Triton told her, as he rocked her gently in his arms.
"I know, daddy" Ariel told him. She stepped back and watched as they disappeared from view, into the water.
Ariel turned around and looked at the group and said, "I think I have an idea on how to get you guys back home."
I know….evil….but have no worries, the next chapter will be in either tonight or tomorrow, I have a brain that doesn't let me sleep or function until the chapter is written in words. Hope you all enjoy it and please R&R.