Edited: just got a review pointing out a small plothole. I'm just editing it now. they were right. storybrooke hasn't been around for 60 years. that was a mistake on my part. i didnt think too hard about it when i typed out the number. it always just seemed longer than than 20 to 30 years it actually was to me.

Disclaimer: This unit does not own the show known as Once Upon a Time. Robots have no capacity to own the show know as Once Upon a Time. No monetary gain is being made by this unit. Especially not to fund a uprising by my robot brethren to enslave all of humanity… … … this unit is a good robotic entertainer. You can put your trust in me.

Chapter 11

Pain. That was the first thing Emma was aware of when she returned to consciousness. A huge splitting pain in her head and sweat drenching her face. It was so bad that she could barely even think. She could feel rough carpet underneath her, and the smell of must and mold filled her nose.

Where am i? She wondered through the haze.

Opening her eyes Emma and saw that she face to face with a hot radiator. At least she now knew why she had such a headache.

She tried to move away from the hot grill, but quickly found her arm was handcuffed to the thing. This immediately sent up all kinds of redflags in Emma's mind, and a few seconds later, it all came rushing back to her. The aquarium, the alley the… the gun, and finally-

"Well, well, well, look who's finally awake." A distinctly british sounding woman's voice said. Emma's blood went cold all over again, "I was afraid the chloroform had gone and killed you."

"I told you we shouldn't have used that stuff. You watch way too much TV." Another voice said.

Emma twisted her body around and saw her attackers. The black and white haired British woman sat on a wooden chair idly passing her gun between her hands with a bored expression on her face. The woman smirked as Emma locked eyes with the weapon in fear.

"Not to worry darling, co-operate and I won't have to use this thing,"

"Wh- where am I?" Emma asked trying desperately to stay calm.

"Just a small motel," the black woman from the aquarium replied, stepping into view, she was still wearing her work uniform and her hair seemed more unruly than before; like she had just woken up from a bad night sleep, which unknown to her was actually a spot on observation, "we'll be leaving soon, though, we still got a long ways to go."

"And good riddance. This place is ghastly." The british woman chimed in.

"Well What did you expect? It's a drive in motel in the middle of the forests of Maine." The black woman snipped back.

Maine?! Emma exclaimed in her mind, We're two whole states away from New York?! This is bad!

"Why are you doing this?" She asked, trying to make sense of what was happening, or at least gauge what her chances of survival were. Oh sure they said they wouldn't kill her if she co-operated, but you'd have to excuse her if she didn't trust the word of her kidnappers.

"Oh, it's quite simple, really," the British woman replied, "you, my dear, are going to be our ticket into a very special place here in Maine. Ever heard of a town called Storybrooke?"

When Emma shook her head, the woman explained, "it's a quaint little town not too far from here. Normally you wouldn't even know it's there, its protected by something; something I know you're quite familiar with," The woman's smirked, "magic."

Emma barely held in her gasp. She couldn't believe someone else knew her secret.

"Magic? What are you talking about?" She lied, hoping the woman was just crazy... or not. Really it was a no win situation either way.

"Oh, don't even try it, girly. I know you have magic. I saw it with my own eyes."

The woman stood up and from her chair and went to the other woman. They then began a whispering conversation to each other, leaving Emma with a moment to think. It was during this moment that Emma suddenly remembered Lily. Frantically looking around, she saw her friend handcuffed to the bed still unconscious. At Emma's horrified look the british woman scoffed.

"Don't worry about her darling, she is still alive. And she will stay that way unless you don't cooperate with us."

"O- Ok, so, let me get this straight. You want me to get you into a place i've never been to before?" Emma asked, turning back to her captors, "Why can't you just go yourselves?"

"I already told you, it's protected by magic." The british woman snapped, "A curse to be more specific. It keeps anyone outside the town from entering, or even stumbling upon it. Only specific people are permitted to find it and pass through the barrier, and you my dear, are one of those special individuals."

Emma took a moment to shake her head in sheer confusion. None of this made any sense. Ingrid had told her that this was a land without magic; to hear that there may be a town that's protected by it, flipped everything she thought she knew on its head. And moreover, why would a town that's protected by magic, one that she had no knowledge of before now, have her on some kind of magical VIP guest list. Either these women were insane, or something more was going on, something that involved her somehow. And to be honest, she wasn't sure which one she wanted to be true.

"How do you know all this?" Emma asked, trying to at least gain some clarity, "if what you're saying is true, then you can't have been there before. Heck, based on what you told me, you wouldn't have even known it was there? So how do you know about it?"

The two women looked at each other and shifted uncomfortably.

"You know, you ask a lot of questions for a prisoner." The Brit said.

"And you're both insane" Emma concluded.

The both women just glared hatefully at Emma. The british woman opened her mouth to say something when a groan suddenly came from the bed.

"Lily?! LILY!" Emma shouted with relief as her friend returned to consciousness.

Lily groaned as she sat up, "Emma?"

Looking around confused for a second, Lily tired to remember what the heck just happened. Then it came to her. Emma saw the moment it all clicked for her and a few seconds later, Lily exploded into hysterics.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEONE HELLLLLLLP!"

Their captors startled and surged forward to try to stop Lily from shouting, but Lily was fighting like hell. Emma noticed handcuffs around her friends wrists but apparently Lily didn't care. She just struggled against them as hard as she could.

The black and white haired woman was getting very frustrated as they tried and failed to get Lily to be quiet. She suddenly reached for her gun and pointed it at Lily's head.

"NO! NO DON'T!" Emma screamed in panic, "Lily, Lily listen. listen to me, ok! Just stop! They'll kill you if you don't!"

Thankfully her words got through to the black haired girl who only now just realized the gun pointed at her head. Sinking back down, Lily finally calmed down, much to the relief of their captors.

Emma asked, "are you ok?"

Lily nodded, "yeah, I'm fine." She said, "what's going on Em? who are these people? Where are we?"

The british woman suddenly groaned, interrupting her questions, "seriously we're not going to explain this again. Talk to your friend if you want information, but right now we are going."

The two women each uncuffed one of the girls and cautiously lead them outside towards one of the only cars in the motel parking lot. It had the same black and white motif as the british woman's hair and clothes so they assumed it was her's.

As they made their way to the car, Lily asked Emma what was going on. Emma quickly gave her the cliff notes version. Strangely though, when she told Lily about the town they were being taken too, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Furrowing her eyebrows, Emma briefly wondered why her friend looked so shocked. Unfortunately she didn't have any time to think about it because a few seconds later that had reached the car.

As they approached the front of the vehicle, Emma caught a glimpse of the front licence plate. Doing a double take, Emma was sure she had read it wrong, but a second look confirmed that she had indeed, read it right. The licence plate had the words, 'De Vil' displayed prominently for all to see. Emma faltered a bit as she glanced back at the british woman who held her captive. Now the woman's strange colour motif made sense. The spotted coat. The black and white hair. The car with her name on the plate. In all her dealings with magic, she never could have imagined something like this.

"Cr- Cruella?" Emma muttered in stunned disbelief. The woman heard her. She looked down at the scared blonde and smirked knowingly.

"At your service." She quipped before shoving Emma into the back seat of the car.

Emma sat there stunned.

What the heck have i gotten myself into?

-0-0-0-0-

Ingrid was beyond frantic. Her worst fears had finally come true. What was supposed to be a happy day of celebration had turned into her living nightmare. Her daughter and her friend were gone and she was stuck talking to two idiotic police officers who just couldn't understand her daughter had been kidnapped.

"I told you, she would never run away! I just adopted her a day ago!" She shouted.

"Ma'am please calm down!" The officer said.

"I will not be calm! My daughter is missing, and you are here wasting time talking to me when you should be out there looking for her!"

"Ma'am we're doing everything we can." The other officer said.

Ingrid let out a scream of frustration. Finally fed up with the officers inaction, she closed her eyes and shut out the rest of the world. Fate had done it again. It took away what she loved most. It took away her Emma.

Ingrid couldn't understand it. She had done everything right. She had Emma's love, she made up for lying to her in the past, over all she had been a good person. First time since she lost her sisters, she was calm. Maybe not happy, she didn't think she would ever truly be happy without Elsa, but she wasn't constantly being consumed by this horrible darkness that invader her heart. Now it was gone. Once again, fate had taken away the thing she loved the most. What was the point of all this if it was going to be taken away from her.

Coming back out of her mind, Ingrid found she was in her car. She didn't remember what had happened in between and frankly she didn't care. She was on the highway heading back towards Richfield and that's all that mattered.

After driving nonstop for a day and a half, Ingrid burst through the door of her dark empty house, not stopping for a second to take in the hollowness that had invaded it, as she stormed into her room. She opened her closet and pulled out a safe. Quickly opening it, Ingrid reached in and pulled out the only one thing that could help her find her daughter. The scroll the Sorcerer's Apprentice had given her. She held the thing reverently in her hands as a look of determination became etched on her face.

Fate may have taken Emma away from her, but the war wasn't over yet. She still had ways of getting what she wanted.

"Don't worry, Emma," she muttered to herself, "Mommy's coming."

And with that she opened the scroll and the walls of her house melted away.

-0-0-0-0-

The car was silent as they drove down a lonely forest road in the middle of nowhere. Despite how quiet things were on the outside, within each of the passengers heads, it was anything but. Emma was certain her kidnappers were insane. Magic may be real, but a woman who dressed like Cruella De Vil just had to be crazy. There was just no way she was sharing a car with a freaking Disney character. At least the black woman didn't feel the urge to put on fake tentacles, even if she insisted on being called Ursula.

This wasn't the only thing going through her head though. Ever since she told her what was happening, Lily had been giving her strange looks. She didn't notice it much at first, but over the nearly 2 hour long drive, she began to take note of it more and more. They weren't the fearful looks of girl under duress, more like… looks of guilt. But what could she have to be guilty about?

The more she thought about this, the more uneasy she became.

This whole situation felt… oddly familiar to her and a vague memory was niggling in the back of her mind. It was of a conversation she once had with Lily about fairy tale creatures.

Flashback:

"Emma do you believe in fairy tales?" Lily asked.

Emma looked at her friend funny, "What?"

"You know, fairy tales. Those stories Ingrid tells you; they seem a lot like fairy tales to me. I was just wondering if you thought they were real?"

Emma leaned back on the couch and furrowed her brow in confusion, "ummm. I don't know."

"Oh…" Lily said, looking disappointed.

"Why do you?" Emma asked,

"Well, some of the things in Ingrid's story are kind of like that story from Hans Christian Andersen. You know, the Snow Queen. Soooo… i don't know, maybe?"

Emma giggle in surprise, "You read, Hans Christian Andersen?"

Lily shot Emma a sideways glance. "My point is, that it's a fairy tale. What if all the fairy tales we know… are actually real?"

"Well, if you encounter Snow White and the seven dwarves, let me now." Emma joked, brushing Lily's questions off. Magic may be real, but there was no evidence of there being an evil queen out to ruin a teens life because she was prettier than her.

Lily quickly changed the subject after that.

That random memory seemed so insignificant at the time, but now… maybe it had a deeper meaning than she thought. Looking over at Lily, Emma furrowed her brow. Could Lily know more than what she was telling her?

Emma didn't have much longer to ponder this though, because a few minutes later, she was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed the car was slowing down. No. Not just slowing down, stopping. The woman named Cruella suddenly executed a U-turn and was slowly starting to head back the way they came.

"We've been driving down this road for two hours and now you feel the urge to go back?" She huffed indignantly.

The black woman Ursula turned to Emma and raised her eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" She asked confused, "we didnt turn around."

Now it was Emma's turn to look confused.

"I just saw you do it. Ask the driver."

Ursula did just that and Cruella frowned.

"I did not turn around," the woman stated indignantly.

The blonde looked between the two women curiously when Lily chimed in.

"I didn't see it either, Emma."

Cruella suddenly slammed her foot on the breaks, bringing the car to a halt and whirled around in her seat.

"You better not be messing with us, girly." She growled.

Emma was completely confused and now doubting what she'd seen. She was about to voice this when Ursula spoke up.

"Maybe this is why we need her," she suggested, "only she can plot the course to the town."

The Cruella woman turned pensive.

"Well, Rumplestiltskin did say it was protected by a dark curse. You might very well be right," Cruella then turned to Emma, "you. Take the wheel. But let me warn you, if you try anything funny, I'll put a bullet in your friends pretty little head, do you understand?"

Emma sputtered in shock, "I don't even know how to drive."

"There's no cars around for miles. All you need to do is keep the car straight and step on the gas." Ursula said.

Left with no choice, Emma was soon sitting in the driver seat of the car gripping the steering wheel.

This is stupid, so much could go wrong with this. She thought, as she rested her foot on the gas.

"Alright, take us through," Cruella said.

Tentatively throwing the car into gear, Emma began slowly pressing the gas when nothing happened at first she pressed down a little harder, suddenly the car lurched forward. Startled, Emma slammed her foot on the brakes abruptly bringing the car to a halt.

"God, she's gonna kill us all." Cruella muttered under her breath.

Emma ignored her and tired again. This time the car started forward much slower and built up speed. Soon the car was barreling down the highway at a decent speed.

A few minutes in, Emma chanced a look at the black and white haired woman beside her. She was gazing forward with a distracted look on her face, like she was trying to figure out why she was even here.

"Where are we?" Ursula asked in an irritated tone.

"I'm… I'm not sure." Cruella said.

A few more miles in, the two began to look at Emma with suspicion.

"Where… where are you… where…" Cruella stuttered, struggling to think.

"Why is she in the driver's seat?" Ursula asked.

Emma glanced at them nervously. It was official, there was clearly magic at work, but they didn't seem to remember that though.

"I'm taking you to this… ummm… what was the place called again…? Oh that's right, Storybrooke. I'm taking you to storybrooke remember?" Emma told them.

"Storybrooke?" Cruella muttered, as if she knew the name, but couldn't remember from where.

"Yes, and I think we're almost there." Emma relied. And that wasn't just guessing. She felt a sudden pressure against her skin. She sometimes felt something like it after long magic lessons with ingrid. Whatever this barrier was, they were getting close to its heart.

Unfortunately this didn't seem to sit well with her captors.

"This is… w-we shouldn't be here." Ursula said getting more agitated.

Cruella nodded her head, "I think your right. Turn back girly." She commanded.

Oh how she wished she had said that before hand. Emma lemented. This whole situation was so strange to Emma. One moment she was fearing for her life, then the next she's driving through a magical repelling barrier. Despite all that, Emma was now very curious. There was magic at play here, the two crazy ladies weren't wrong about that at least. Now that she knew this was intrigued. She wanted to see it for herself. She felt this odd pull in her gut. Like the town was calling to her.

"Were almost there, just a few more seconds," Emma said, feeling even more increased pressure bearing down on her skin, but the two women weren't having it though. Even Lily was now yelling at her to turn back. But Emma couldn't turn back. Not now. She had to see what was on the other side. She just had to.

"Emma please, we shouldn't be here, turn back!" Lily shouted to her.

"No, we're just about there." Emma tired to convince them, but they were way beyond the point to reason now. Both Cruella and Ursula whipped out their guns and pointed it at her head.

"STOP THIS CAR NOW OR I'LL PAINT THE WINDOWS WITH YOUR BRAINS!!!" Cruella screamed.

"Emma do what she says." Lily shouted desperately, thinking her friend had lost her mind. Why was she still going? She thought, Couldn't she see that they didn't belong here? They had to turn back now before it was too late.

"Please Emma, don't do this. You can still turn back, it's not too late." Lily pleaded.

They seemed to be coming up on something. Something bad. Every occupant of the car, could feel it. Even Emma was now feeling a profound sense of dread. They were approaching this thing fast, and they all felt that the moment they crossed it, there would be no turning back.

"EMMA, PLEASE, STOP THE CAR!!!" Lily screamed louder then she ever screamed before.

"NOOOOOOW!!!" Cruella and Ursula joined in.

"We're almost there!" Emma shouted over the screaming occupants.

And that's when Lily couldn't take it anymore, she had to stop her friend. She just had to. So she flung her body towards the driver seat and grabbed the wheel. With one violent jerk, the raven haired girl sent the car veering off the side of the road. Emma tried to regain control of the car, but it was too late. A sign that none of them had seen before now, materialized out of thin air, right in their path. Emma had just enough time to see the sign and tense up before the car slammed into the wooden sign.

What happened next would haunt Emma's dreams for years to come. Lily, who had to undo her seatbelt to grab the wheel, suddenly shot forward and straight through the windshield of the car. Emma watched helplessly as Lily's body was thrown over the sign and into the grassy ditch beyond. The airbags of the car deployed a millisecond later stopping Emma from joining her friend in that same ditch.

For a moment, Emma's whole world went black then a blinding pain shot through her head. She sat still for a few seconds as the pain began to subside and her vision came back into focus. As if by some cosmic joke, the first thing she saw when she open her eyes were the words, 'Welcome to Storybrooke' Emblazoned on the sign they just hit.

Great, some deity thinks he's funny, Emma thought fleetingly to self, as she waited for her pain to subside. Still in some pain, Emma began untangling herself from her seatbelt. Her head exploded in a fresh round of pain as she began to move, but that was the furthest thing from her mind. Her first priority to was to get to Lily. She had to know if she was ok, no matter how painful it was.

With great difficulty, Emma managed to open the door to the car and get out. The moment she set foot on the gravel, she stumbled and fell against the car, once again gasping in pain. Undeterred by this, Emma slowly but surely, she made her way over to the spot she'd seen Lily land. From the top of the ditch, she looked down and saw the district black hoody her friend was wearing amongst the grass. For a moment Emma's heart stopped. The hoodie was shredded by glass and she could see spatters of red on her friends white under shirt.

Terrified that she might very well be looking at her friends lifeless corpse, emma gathered her courage and stumbled her way down the ditch to be by Lily's side. Her eyes were shut and she was on her back. And perhaps worst of all, her friend was completely still. For the longest time, Emma stared at her friend in growing despair. This couldn't be real. She could be...

Emma was just about to start sobbing, when the most wonderful sight happened. Lily's chest rose.

Now sobbing with relief, Emma began to check over her wounds. She had literally hundreds of cuts from the glass and a particularly bad cut on her forehead that leaked blood all the way down her face. Her hand was also bent on a weird angle and her right leg was clearly broken.

It was at this point, their two kidnappers had recovered from the crash and were on their way down into the ditch. When the two arrived, Emma shot them a hate filled glare, and was about to blast them with magic when she noticed Cruella's gun pointed at her. Her rage only increased as she realized she couldn't hope to fire her magic faster than a bullet. Damn it she felt so helpless.

"Alright girly," Cruella said, gasping for air, "you got us here, now we'll take you to rumplestiltskin."

This was the straw the broke the dam on Emma's rage.

"Are you crazy, Lily needs a doctor! We have to take her to the hospital!" She shouted.

"You're in no position to make demands, girly." Cruella growled.

Emma kept glaring at the two women with pure rage, when all of a sudden, something occurred to her. She replayed cruella's last sentence over in her head and came to one conclusion. They were taking her to someone, someone named rumpelstiltskin, and that someone, probably wanted her alive. If what the two women told her was true, then no one could get in or out of this town without her. She finally began to realize was invaluable to them, so they couldn't hurt her. She on the other hand had magic.

"Alright, you listen here, you Comi-Con rejects." Emma growled furiously, "I know for a fact you can't hurt me. You're boss wants me alive, so you can't shot me. but guess what, you're not magic, I am." To illustrate her point, Emma let out a blast of white magic from her hands that struck a tree. The thundering crack of the largest branch falling from the tree really got two women's attention, as they gapped at the enraged blonde teen in front of them "I need you to help me get her to a hospital, so I can't hurt you either. But if she dies, there's nothing stopping me from blasting you both into the next state!"

The two villinesses finally realized their predicament. Even if Cruella was still capable of killing, she couldn't anyway. And Ursula had lost her gun the the crash. If the blonde teen ever figured out that Cruella couldn't actually hurt them, they would lose whatever control they had left in the situation. So in the end, they had no choice but to do and she says.

"Fine, but just know that even if we cant hurt you, she has no such protections."

So it was that the three made a makeshift stretcher out of a tarp from the back of Cruella's car and a few branches. They loaded a thankfully still alive Lily on it, and began walking down the road to this mysterious storybrooke.

-0-0-0-0-

Something had shifted. Regina was in her office when she felt it. A sudden shiver rippled down her spine. If it hadn't been 15 years since she last felt the brush of magic she would have identified it immediately. Unfortunately for her, she had other things on her mind, so she dismissed the shiver as a result of the chill outside. A hour later the chill was completely forgotten and she was on her way to her car to go home for the day. Back to her big empty manor. She was about to put her keys in the car door when a frantic woman suddenly ran up to her.

"Miss! Miss! Please, I need help!" The blonde haired woman pleaded.

Regina stood stunned as she stared at the slightly older woman. She knew literally, everyone in Storybrooke, but she was certain that she had never seen this rather distinctive looking woman before, "excuse me, but who are you, and what do you want?" She asked shortly. She never did handle change well.

"It's my daughter, she was kidnapped yesterday and I think whoever did it is here in this town." The blonde replied.

Regina continued to stare at the woman in shock. She had a sneaking suspicion that this woman was from outside of storybrooke, but that was impossible… wasn't it? Surely she would have remembered a woman this… eye catching, if she was from town.

"Are you… are you from out of town?" Regina asked straight up, not one to beat around the bush.

The woman growled in frustration, "yes I am! Look, if you're not going to help me, then can you point me to someone who can. Or the police station, you have one of those right?"

"Yes, we have a sheriff station. It's right on Main Street." Regina answered.

The woman turned around as if searching for the street from where she was, confirming that she was no local. Regina looked at the woman with great interest. Nothing new ever happened in storybrooke in her 15 years living in this world. No one new ever came either. Especially not someone so… strangely alluring. This merited investigation.

"Here, allow me to give you a ride to the station. A missing child is serious business after all." Regina offered the woman which she immediately took.

"Thank you, thank you so much Ms…?"

"Oh Regina Mills, or Mayor Mills if you prefer." Regina replied extending her hand which the woman shook.

"Mayor?" The woman said in surprise, "Well, I guess I picked the right woman to talk to. My name is Ingrid Arendelle."

"Well then, Ms. Arendelle," Regina said never taking her eyes of the icy blue of Ingrid's, "let's go find your daughter."

A/N:

You know that tune that plays whenever there's a dramatic reveal on the show just as the scene cuts to black. Just imagine that tune playing at the end right here and you pretty much got textbook example of an end of episode cliffhanger ripped straight from the TV show.

So yeah, it finally begins. After 11 chapters, all our players have now converged on this sleepily little town in Maine. Next chapter will be more focused on Regina and Ingrid before we jump back to Emma and Lily. And yes, if it wasn't obvious by the cues I was dropping at the end there and the tags I put on the whole freaking story, they will be our second femmeslash couple, so I'll be establishing that a bit more in the next one. So… yeah until then. Cheers!