NEW NOTE (EDIT): The first chapter of 'Heathens', a companion piece to this story, is now up to read and review! Wouldn't you rather read about Neal and Merlin having an adventure than that CaptainCharming bromance rubbish on the show? I know I would! WizardFire all the way!
Note: GUEST reviewers, please have the courtesy to at least make up a name, will you? Just using "Guest" is lazy as fuck.
Note: This writer was feeling lazy as fuck and decided to skip right to the end instead of trying to bullshit through magical MacGuffin plot devices.
HAPPY HANUKKAH, MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND A BELATED WONDERFUL FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A STRANGE LOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE DARK CURSE BOMB
In retrospect, Emma should have put off talking with her sister until after interrogating their alchemist. By the time she reached the Asylum, the poor sap was being sucked into a familiar hat in the hands of The Apprentice.
"Perhaps you'd like to join my friend?" the old man inquired.
"Perhaps you'd like a ticket back to The Underworld," Emma shot back, gathering magic in her hands.
She had hoped to avoid a one-on-one confrontation. This guy was obviously dangerous, powerful, and almost certainly insane enough to have his own cell down here. But Emma at least expected her attack to have some impact. Instead, like attacking Jekyll, the sorcerer barely flinched. And even more insulting, he laughed.
"Saviors," he scoffed while putting his hat upon his head. "To whom so much is given, and in whom so much hope is placed, but yet they're always such fools. You think you're some sort of savant when your gift just turns on, but you're just a magical savage, no training, no understanding, no control. Have you even learned one single spell or is throwing raw magic around the extent of your tricks?"
"Throwing raw magic around has knocked a lot of bastards like you on their asses!" Emma hissed, and she tried to gather her magic together again, but before she could complete it, the old man had his shriveled weird wand at her throat.
"Perhaps it was your sister doing the learning then. Rather a waste, don't you think? Weeks wandering around her mind with all those Dark Ones, and that is the best you can do? You couldn't even take the opportunity for some tutoring and I suppose she just let them do all the heavy lifting, channel their knowledge for trapping memories and ripping out hearts rather than take the time to actually learn how to do it all on her own. Six weeks with a phantasm of the most learned of the Dark Ones, and this is all you've got? I actually had hoped choosing you to succeed Rumplestiltskin would lead to a bit more of a challenge. But you're just pathetic, aren't you?"
Sadly, she was. Emma's lessons had been all of a few days with Regina which had been mostly to rely on her instincts and her willpower more than any book, because she was, honestly, a crap student with books and Regina realized quickly that she was more action than academics and they didn't have time to change that. Then it was Anna who had all the power and then some, and Emma had wanted no part of the Dark Ones' whisperings even if she couldn't help but absorb a few things while Anna had just let their experience guide her rather than learning the techniques.
"Why are you doing this?" Emma demanded as the wood dug into her neck. "You're willing to sacrifice thousands, perhaps millions of lives just to spite the gods?"
"When life and death are nothing but prisons, nonexistence is the only escape," The Apprentice reasoned before vanishing in a swirl of black smoke.
All the details pertaining to how they reached the climax of Storybrooke's worst fiasco wasn't terribly important. They had, at least, unbound the books, sequestering the other realms and had apprehended The Apprentice, but he'd still managed to set things in motion to revert the Dark Curse.
Much like had happened with the Doomsday Crystal, the trees that had been transported back to The Enchanted Forest to make room for Storybrooke began exploding through the pavement and buildings while at the same time the town's infrastructure just started unraveling, everything put there by magic rather than acquired from the outside world disintegrating like piles of salt in a rain storm..
The road out of town became a massive bloody car wreck and half the Cannery's fleet of lobster boats began to sink from freak waves as the currents and tides reversed, their occupants doomed no matter whether or not Hook and Anna were able to rescue them aboard the Jolly Roger. That was before the cars and ships created by magic began to themselves unravel.
Regina had tried to cast her spell to solidify people's cursed memories, but by then there was no longer magic separate from the Dark Curse itself, the magic of the Land Without Magic pushed aside, trapping them in a void.
When magic had been siphoned away, like the Crystal, that had felt like a weird numbness, a change in air pressure. But this was painful. To Emma it physically felt like something was being ripped out of her, surgically removed by a sadist with a scalpel and no anesthesia. She knew what it was, of course. It was her connection to the Dark Curse, her bond that Rumplestiltskin had coded into it when he poured that potion on the written spell. Perhaps it's what the Shears of Destiny felt like, though Emma imagined that was a more temperate and choreographed separation, getting stabbed in the heart by a psycho aside, than this agony. And there wasn't time or reason to ask Henry as in the sky above a black orb was forming in much the way the Dark One had swarmed itself around its new host, spinning more and more rapidly - but also condensing into a solid thing that when it had finished destroying everything it made would finally fulfill its original purpose and lay waste to everything left.
Emma could already imagine the government claiming it was an exploding comet or something. There would be nothing but shattered, charred trees scattered like popsicle sticks, all living things incinerated. It was no wonder The Duke of The Frontlands was so feared and hated. If he'd succeeded, the history of The Enchanted Forest would have been very different. That didn't matter, though. Soon there would be no future in that world for the people here.
"We failed," Snow wept, holding her husband where the faux historic "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign used to stand but was now just a few old moss-covered cobbles.
"We kept the other worlds safe," David stoically reminded. "That counts for something."
"Well, at least we won't exist much longer to feel the disappointment," mused Regina with an arm around Henry and then turned to Emma.
"You should take Henry, see if you can still make it out. You won't have your memories, but you'll exist."
Emma swallowed thickly. Deja vu all over again. But different.
Looking at her son, Emma saw as she always did his father in his warm brown eyes and she hoped capturing that old asshole meant the deal still stood... assuming they'd at least protected Mt. Olympus against the impending magical mega-bomb. Even if they did, she had no idea what would happen to everyone here, if their souls would move on or just... be obliterated like they never existed, like none of it had mattered.
Then Emma had a thought, possibly absurd, possibly pointless, but she had to try. So she took Henry by the shoulders and told him, "If this doesn't work, you leave."
To Regina she demanded, "You make sure he leaves."
"Mom, what-"
There was no time. Emma ran to grab the reigns of the horse that Henry had tied to a tree. They'd had to ride here when the town's local roads got swallowed up by forest and all but a few cars disappeared. The other horses had all spooked and galloped off, Regina even getting thrown before they'd reached the clearing. Apparently, compared to Manhattan traffic, getting sideswiped by cyclic and pelted with bottles by drunk homeless people, an apocalypse was no big deal for the seasoned carriage horse.
Emma had never properly learned how to ride. She supposed Geronimo hadn't done any riding of that sort either in a very long time, but she found her barrings and he galloped in the direction she urged, toward the old toll bridge and from there up the ridgeline's trail, past the old campground where the Flynn's had set up their tent that fateful night and found themselves trapped inside a storybook nightmare.
And from there Emma reached the wishing well, quickly dismounting.
"Love is more powerful than magic," she recited, yanking the chain from around her neck, thinking of the first time she did magic. No spell. No training. .Just love and the deep desire to protect those she held dear in her heart.
Emma clutched the small bit of tin tightly in her hand and remembered what it felt like to be truly loved and love so deeply in return. She focused on her love for Henry, for parents, even her sister and Regina - and on Neal, a love that burned with pain. Love lost could be a more powerful love than any other. It could corrupt a heart, turning it black and destroy worlds. Or it could stop that destruction and heal, and it was on the later that Emma concentrated and reached deep into her heart and the strange magic her parents and her destiny had created.
When the burn grew so great that it felt like her heart might spontaneously combust and turn to ash in her chest and her hand glowed so brightly her bones stood out like an x-ray, Emma unclenched her first and watched the small, brilliantly lit piece of tin fall into the dark depths of the well.
Regina stood ready to shove Henry over the town line if need be when not unlike the triggering of her sister's time portal, a sudden, massive pillar of brilliant light erupted from behind the trees, up into the sky, and right at the orb.
It struck with a deafening crack and the shock wave of rainbow light that followed knocked over everyone not already moaning on the ground from their injuries as it rippled through the town, vanishing the trees, repairing the buildings, healing those wounds incurred in the destruction.
Where moments ago Regina and Henry had been standing amongst bloodied townsfolk and bits and pieces of their cars and luggage - presumably parts that had come on the train over the years - everyone was now without a scratch and their cars... well... back on the road with the scratches they had from three decades of use.
"She did it!" Henry exclaimed. "Mom saved us!"
Indeed, it seemed that Emma had.
Out in the harbor the turbulent sea went calm and the sinking, fragmenting boats were restored allowing Anna, Hook, and the few others who'd joined them aboard the Jolly Roger to cast off life preserves and haul them in.
A swish of Tinkerbell's wand observed that magic had been returned as well, which helped in the rescue considerably.
"You have to admit," Hook said after a self-congratulatory swig from his flask, "playing the hero does feel good, aye, luv?"
"It does," Anna agreed and took her own gulp, giving her almost-husband a considering look.
"What? Not terribly upset that ripply rainbow light didn't restore my hand, are you?"
Anna shook her head, wondering if she should admit...? No. She wasn't keen on being that reformed. "I was just thinking. I mean... you felt that. I know it's not the first time I've experienced the whole true love ripply rainbow light thing, but..."
"Aye," Hook nodded. "T'was a bit different than breaking a run-of-the-mill sleeping curse or a memory block. Or it's the one doing the breaking. Belle mentioned once, about how when Emma broke the Curse originally by waking Henry, when she finally believed in what and who she was and that magic was real, that it felt far more powerful than any since."
"She is The Savior," Anna mused. "I suppose that should be a given. She was created by true love. She should feel it more deeply, manifest it more powerfully."
"And you're worried you can't channel the magic of true love without your sister playing parasitic twin?" Hook asked.
"I don't know," Anna shrugged. "I'm the product of a curse. But I don't want my life defined by that. I don't want to end up like my uncle, blaming my twin for my not being the child our parents wanted and compensating for that by hurting others. Or just plain batshit crazy like Zelena. And I'd rather not be seen my whole life as the physical manifestation of affliction upon my family's bloodline."
Hook eyed his true love and deduced. "You want to find a cure. I can't imagine that's easy or it would've been discovered centuries ago and this Evil Twin thing known of only in history books."
Anna tipped her head. "When have you ever backed down from a challenge? You spent centuries hell-bent on taking down the Dark One. You pursued relentlessly even when given no indication that your salty seduction was having any effect. And if Emma can stop an apocalypse, this shouldn't be that hard in comparison. If anything, I owe it to my nephew, at least. If Henry hadn't gotten Emma here, I'd never have my own life."
"Aye, I suppose I also owe the lad for that. But to be fair, you gave some indications," Hook argued, "through your sister's frosty refusals and then gave in without resistance once she'd been subverted."
"Well, okay, that's true," Anna conceded. "But my point is, I'm going on a quest to rid my family of this curse. I might not be able to make myself into someone else. I am what I am. I don't there's much changing that, curse or no curse at this point, but I can make sure no future souls stuck with this family have the added burden of being fucked up by dark magic before birth," she declared. "So are you in or are you out?"
"If I say I'm in," Hook inquired, "does that mean the odds improve for another generation of Joneses?"
Anna rolled her eyes but smiled. "If I say 'maybe' do the odds improve for you putting that flask away and loading up with enough supplies for a lengthy and not entirely sex filled honeymoon?"
"We're still not technically married, luv."
The sea suddenly began to boil off the starboard bow and though they prepared for a krakan or some other sea beast, it was actually the Nautilus surfacing.
The hatch opened and Captain Nemo emerged, remarking, "A mermaid brought me a wedding invitation. I think she also stole my forks. Are we too late? And where can I purchase more forks?"
Merlin's former Apprentice was none too happy, bound up on the floor like a caterpillar in a cocoon in the middle of the Library with Zelena pointing his own wand at him. He was less happy when three birdlike women appeared, the leader taking the golden sword from Belle's daintily gloved hand.
"Oh, how those bindings must burn," Alecto taunted the sorcerer. "You'll be pleased to know that there is a new Lord of Death ready to take this sword and strike you down. I do think he will truly enjoy it."
"Let's go for a ride, old man," one of the Furies hissed and lifted him up with her sister, carrying him to the elevator.
Instead of opening to a car, it opened to a glowing portal which they stepped through just as the rest of Henry's family minus Emma, Anna, and Hook entered the Library.
Ignoring them, Gold demanded of the chief Furry, "I know Emma made a deal to free my son from his servitude. I assume her side has been met."
Alecto inclined her head. "It has. He is no longer Lord of The Underworld. And as you all are now free to live your lives as just that, without strings attached to please the gods with your stories, The Underworld will become merely a way station for souls to pass on beyond Zeus' reach when they are ready. Which does not mean my sisters and I will not punish any who tamper with the realm of the gods or seek to use magic not of mortal worlds."
"Of course," Gold allowed. "We all still have jobs to do, even if we are not playing roles on the stage your creators built."
"Indeed, and mine is not quite done here."
Alecto turned to Zelena, moving her blade lighting fast to the former Wicked Witch's throat and holding it there as she hissed, "Every mortal woman who beds a god thinks above her station. Had I the full powers imbued by this blade, I would cleave off your silly red head and plant it on spike outside the Halls of Justice to remind those being judged what befalls bitches who think they can become gods.
"Instead..." She retracted the sword, dropped it to her side, then thrust it forward in lightning swift motion, imbedding the golden blade in Zelena's abdomen.
Everyone gasped, including Zelena, but instead of blood or guts when Alecto pulled it free, there were tendrils of green light and the redhead wailed and clutched at her abdomen, the light seeping through her fingers until the last wisps were sucked into the sword and her shrieking subsided.
"What... what did you do to me!?"
"I exacted justice for those you have wronged. I have taken away, permanently this time, the thing that makes you special: your magic, and the thing that makes you happy: your child."
"You... erased my daughter from existence!?" Zelena shrieked.
"That girl was a time aberration," Alecto stated, "created as a result of actions undertaken in the past that should not have been. Time is sacred and it can't be changed to suit any one person's desires without causing harm to the lives of countless others."
"That's not fair!" Zelena wailed. "I love her!"
"You are incapable of love," Alecto challenged her. "You are, tragic as it may be, the result of a curse upon your despicable father's line and he perpetuated his wretchedness with you. You have shown little inclination to attempt to better yourself for anything but the pettiest of reasons, so the gods have only pity for you and that is why your life is being spared for your mortal family to with as they see fit."
Zelena wailed inconsolably on the floor and Snow considered, "Must you be that cruel? She couldn't help that she was created that way. And Emma... Anna did the best she could to repair her mistake."
Alecto eyed Snow White with a cool expression and told her, "You do your mother's unearned legacy no favors when you mistake charity for justice. Favoring evil choices because of the magic that created her is not without the capacity to know the difference. It makes the dark, which always feels good, enticing, but it does not completely block out the light. She chose the dark again and again. It was from the dark that the child was conceived and had magic not sought to birth a light child to contain darkness she should have ceased to exist by virtue of her twin. But neither was meant to exist. Marian was dead in the past. To use her likeness to entice a man into siring a child is not merely rape of an unconscionable sort that merits punishment, but any child thus sired is a temporal aberration.
"And those can add up to paradoxes of the most infuriating sort," Alecto explained. "For instance, Killian Jones falling drunkenly in lust with a blonde temptress he did not know was from the future, thus enticing his past self to alter his reason for ferrying your family to Neverland from penance for wronging Henry's father to the desire to bed his mother due to what he perceived as nothing more than a recurring dream for decades until it became a message from The Fates that she was his one true love. Yet the dream was not recurring at all for that one time was actually the first time it happened. A paradox of lust and love. Some would say that he seduced her. Yet it was she who entrapped him. Due to this paradox, both and neither are true. Harmless, perhaps, outside of their romance, but other paradoxes are not so benign.
"And those threaten the stability of this universe," continued Alecto, "however altered and unoriginal it has become from what it once was and should have become. Too much has occurred to repair it all, but some can be removed and certain damages repaired, like the child that wasn't meant to be, a soul ripped by that paradox from the life it was meant for in order to be the offspring of a mad rapist."
To the crying redhead, Alecto stated, "By giving up your child, you give her soul a better chance at happiness. Let accepting this be your good deed, if you are capable of any."
Alecto proceeded toward the elevator, amending, "I would caution you that after the sun sets, you do not seek to travel to other realms and keep others from attempting to visit while the gods repair the holes in the tapestry of time and space to a state from whence opening a portal does not cause a dozen others break open and rain down odd people in steam-powered dirigibles or bury your town in a sand storm. True love has dissipated The Darkness back to its natural, harmless state. There is balance. But it is new and there is work to be done to bring about the changes Zeus agreed upon, the freedom you have won. Do not let your reckless mortality jeopardize this gift as your kind are wont to do."
"We won't," Belle promised.
"I have a question!" Henry suddenly blurted out. "Was that you that attacked us by the lake for trying to save Robin?"
"Ah, yes, I'd almost forgotten..."
"Eeeeep!" Henry exclaimed when Alecto transformed into a hideous black scaly creature with demonic wings, bug-like eyes, and really absurdly large breasts for no discernible reason.
Alecto shifted back, shrugging, "Mortals are far more willing to quake in terror before the hideous than the beautiful. Also, men - and some women - are quite easily distracted by ridiculously large breasts. Makes it much easier to apprehend them."
Regina snorted at that.
"I'd best depart," Alecto announced.
"Wait," Henry stopped the demi-goddess again. "My dad. Can you... can you tell him that I love him? That I miss him. And... I'll take care of Mom... And Geronimo."
"I will," Alecto confirmed before stepping into the portal that instantly closed up, leaving the empty elevator car.
"So..." Belle asked, "who wants burgers?"
"I could eat," nodded David.
"I'm starving, actually," agreed Snow.
"Can I get a hot fudge sundae?" Henry asked Regina.
"Averting an apocalypse does seem to warrant sundaes."
"I HATE YOU ALL!" Zelena wailed, sniffed, and put in rather pathetically, "I suppose I wouldn't object to some apple pie and ice cream."
Anna found her sister not far from where Geronimo was munching on weeds, sitting on the swing set in the little used park that Regina had built after tearing down Henry's castle. The genie-lamp inspired slide had play horses had rusted and been taken over by vines.
Emma was swaying back and forth with rusty squeaks, clutching a stack of yellowed paper, her expression set in that numb mask Anna knew well was the brittle calm before a breakdown.
A big part of Anna wanted to just leave her sister there. Like 99.9% of her. She wasn't good at this 'caring' thing. It literally wasn't in her nature, a nature created not by nature but an insidious spell some asshole - she had her money on Neal's grandmother - invented and got spread around by greedy shit mortals who liked to fuck a lot. In a sense, Anna was only slightly more real in her origin than people made from a magic quill or a genie's spell, just because the magic triggered what a quirk of nature would otherwise... just with the caveat that the magic remained, ensuring that bunch of cells developed wrong, developed with a broken moral compass from a pre-blackened heart. And that darkness fought against the absorbing of any light, the seeking of redemption for past wrongs and happiness that came from love rather than the pain of others.
It was not a particularly fun existence, and Anna could understand how it had driven Zelena to become such a crazy, fucked-in-the-head cunt. She'd killed her twin before birth without even knowing it, though it seemed that her mother had and tossed her out like trash, perhaps hoping the Black Fairy would take her to at least put her magical psychosis to some use rather than wolves tearing her to shreds. Anna had been spared that, and by ad hoc accounts, it seemed that her uncle wasn't particularly happy even as a wealthy prince, so perhaps missing out on a life of her own for thirty years and having to share a past with the sister she would have killed in the womb without destiny and a spell was really the best fate she could have asked for. And while Anna doubted that Emma would agree at the moment, maybe it was the best fate she could have asked for too.
Emma didn't look up as Anna approached and took a seat in the other swing, just kept staring at the top sheet, a pencil and ink sketch of her first date with Neal, the two of them sitting on that Italian trapeze. Anna had those memories, hazy and disconnected as they were for her, bits and pieces of Emma's life that had been emotional highs and lows, that resonated with the little patch of light her sister had protected in her heart for all those years and Anna had spent the last few days torn between wanting to let the darkness swallow it and fighting the darkness back.
"I'm sorry you had to sacrifice your keychain," Anna finally broke the silence, getting a surprised look from Emma. "What? I'm observant. And Belle did say once it had the ability to travel between worlds because of the true love by which it was given and received, no matter what it came to represent between then and Neal giving it back to you. And, besides, as a way to save this world and the world of the gods from destruction, makes sense to use something connecting souls in those two places."
"We're all still alive and Neal gets to move on, that's what matters," Emma answered with a shrug and flipped through the drawings, some of them fanciful ones of the life they could have had.
"And no one can question anymore that your love was true," Anna pointed out. "That it still is. It stopped an apocalypse. Pretty sure people will write that down. Either way, Emma, you both loved each other, and you've still got that in your heart, with or without some cheap piece of tin."
"Somehow that makes it hurt even more," Emma admitted, fighting tears. "Turns out I hadn't accepted it fully how much I loved Neal, no matter how much I thought that I had. There was still a part of me that was holding back, that was afraid, because I knew it would hurt to lose him again. I think that's really why, even in that wish world, he was dead. Because it wouldn't be real, and I knew deep down that I'd always take a nightmare that's real over a dream that's a lie. Still, it would have been nice to at least know we could have had Tallahassee.," she concluded with a sob, finally losing the battle against her grief.
Terrible as she was at this sort of thing, Anna slipped an arm around her sister, the rusty swings squeaking in protest. Emma cried for a long time, finally pulled away when her eyes were red and her nose running.
"Here," Anna offered her a wad of tissues as Emma pushed her glasses up to wipe at her eyes.
"Thanks," Emma sniffled. "I'm sorry I messed up your jacket."
"I did buy it with your money, so, no big deal," Anna quipped.
"Right," Emma snorted after blowing her nose.
"You don't need a genie to know that, Emma," Anna insisted. "Or a book. Or even that keychain. This town still being here, everyone getting the chance now to write their own stories, fight to make their wishes come true, that's how you know your love could have done anything... even if that anything was something ordinary and boring like raising a nosey kid in a dumpy apartment in a swampy city that's actually not right by the beach."
Emma smiled at her. "Thank you."
After a short silence, Anna cleared her throat and began again, "I know I appear strong, but I'm not. And don't tell me you understand, because you can't. You don't know what it is to be... unhinged, to be.. flailing about. Killian's the only one who can hold me together. And maybe that's not the kind of true love that fairy tales are written about. It doesn't save thousands of lives and it can't break a terrible curse and rebalance reality, but it saves mine every day. His love for me, it gives me a reason to keep fighting against my own darkness, the darkness that made me, to hold onto that little bit of goodness that's there because of you, that let's me feel something I shouldn't be capable of."
Letting out a breath, she concluded, "So, I know you don't like Killian, and you probably never will. But I wouldn't have him without you, so it would mean... a lot if my sister would be there, in about an hour, when Nemo, hopefully, officially, barring any kraken, hydra, and giant squid attacks or mermaid rebellions, gets us hitched aboard the Jolly Roger."
Sniffing a bit still, Emma responded, "You're right, I probably won't ever like him. But also that I can't fully understand what it's like to be you. I guess we really can't fully understand each other. But you are my sister, and it doesn't change that I love you, and that, of course, I will be there to see you get your happy ending... and then sail off and leave me alone to deal with this crazy town of freaks and their old world laws," she amended at the end with a slight smirk.
"So, change the laws," shrugged Anna. "Maybe there's some kind of middle ground between letting everyone get away with anything with a slap on the wrist and a few hours of community service and locking all the murderers and crazies under the hospital. Well, personally, I wouldn't change locking up the crazies. But otherwise? Who knows what'll work best. This town's not dependent on a curse anymore thanks to you, so seems like a chance to try some new things. Even if you're not a savior anymore."
Emma blinked at that. It hadn't even occurred to her. She didn't feel any different. But if there was no longer any part of the Dark Curse left, if Storybrooke was just a town that had some unusual magic in it from another land, then did that really mean she was normal? Or as normal as the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming who had magic could be?
Instead, Emma asked her sister, "Are you saying that you're not going to contest my claim as Sheriff?"
Anna shrugged again and replied, "The bountyhunter thing was more my style. Kicking ass, taking names, breaking so many rules it's basically illegal in most of the country. Just bad enough to suit my taste without the risk of jail time. Joining a sheriff's department? That was all you. Well, maybe a little bit me in upping the odds of bedding Graham, but the actual job part without sexual benefits, that was you. You're the good cop. I'm the bad cop, but the corrupt one that gets busted by Internal Affairs for abusing criminals and taking bribes kind."
"Well," mused Emma, "there goes my speech."
"You had a speech?"
"Yeah, I worked on it in New York.."
"Don't let the hard work go to waste. Lay it on me."
"I don't know..."
"You think I can't take it?" Anna snorted.
Emma rolled her eyes, then put on a lecturing tone, "You owe me for what you've done to my reputation in this town, Anna. So I demand you hand over my badge and resign immediately! I can overlook the constant absences, the blatant disregard for rules and regulations, but your moral compass is broken and I point blank refuse to work with someone whose sense of right and wrong is as flippant as the weather! Someone who thinks getting laid is more important than justice. You are unfit to be Sheriff. You have no place in law enforcement!"
"Flippant?"
"That might have been Henry's suggestion."
"Well, that certainly was blunt in its cruelty," Anna told her with a snort.
"Sorry."
"No you're not."
"Yeah, you're right," Emma conceded. "I haven't changed my mind about any of that. You're my sister and I love you, but you're a shitty cop."
Anna smirked at that and handed over the badge to Emma. "Was a shitty cop. Now I'm just a pissed off bride planning to take a six month honeymoon cruise. Of course, that's assuming I can actually get married. Twenty bucks said Dad gets wasted before the ceremony."
"I'm not dumb enough to take that bet, Anna," Emma snorted.
"Fifty bucks says he threatens Nemo with his sword and tries to get him to walk the plank before the end of the reception then," shrugged Anna and Emma groaned.
"Fine, it's a bet."
A much smaller wedding party in a mix of fairy tale and regular clothes gathered on the docks just before sunset, fresh off fighting evil for the umpteenth time.
"At least I don't have to be Hook's best man again," groaned Henry.
Emma smirked at that and nodded toward the Nautilus. "Ever gonna explain that little adventure, Kid?"
"Other than that I had a chance to let Hook die and chickened out because I thought you wanted to marry him? Not really," he sighed.
Slipping an arm around her son, Emma told him, "Well, heroes don't let people die just because they don't like them. And you don't have to worry about him throwing out your Pop-Tarts anymore."
"Yeah, the boiled mackerel was nasty. He's still annoying, though. And kind of useless."
"Well, your aunt thinks he's useful for something..."
"Yeah, I know what 'something'. I walked in on them once!"
"Ah, right, forgot about that," Emma grimaced. "I mostly blocked out all of... ah... that."
"I wish I could!"
Someone on board rang a bell to welcome the guests aboard and as everyone began filing up the steps Henry asked, "Do you think... if Dad hadn't died you two would have... you know... gotten married?"
"I don't know," Emma answered honestly. "It was losing your dad that made me realize how much I loved him still. I want to believe we'd have found our way back together, even if my aunt and her lady boner for Hook got in the way for awhile. But I don't know if we'd have gone the traditional route. It wouldn't have changed how we felt about each other, though. Or you."
"I wish I could have seen Dad," Henry moped, "talked to him one more time."
"I know," Emma grimaced. "I'm so sorry I didn't let you see him when we got here from New York, Henry. I was afraid. I didn't know how to explain that he wasn't the guy I'd thought he was without my memories, that I made you think he was. I was being selfish. And I'll regret that for the rest of my life. I made a lot of decisions out of fear that hurt you. And then my sister made a ton more that I couldn't stop. And I know all of that has left you with more on your plate than any kid your age should be dealing with."
"One less now, though," Henry reminded. "It was kind of a sucky destiny sometimes, but it made me special, you know? And now I can't add Dad's story," he moped. "Or how you met. Not that I'd want to anyway, since apparently all I've been doing is magically enslaving people or something."
"Hey, that's not your fault," Emma insisted. "You didn't know that. No one did. And we don't need to be in a magical book, Henry. Who says you can't write it down without a fancy quill? The pages are still there even if they're just ordinary words and pictures now. And you definitely don't need some magic destiny to be special. Believe me, they're overrated. You were an amazing kid long before you picked up that quill, and you'll continue to do amazing things long after it, Henry."
"You really think I'm amazing?" Henry asked with a suspicious look and his mother smiled.
"Yeah, Kid, you are. You have more hope than anyone I've met. You got me here to break that crazy Curse. And you can be whatever you set your heart and mind to. Which I know is all your dad wants. For you to never limit yourself, never give up. So don't let yourself get boxed in by any world," Emma advised. "By anyone's expectations. Or people saying you need fancy powers or titles to be important to someone or to do good in the world. What matters is that you feel good doing good, helping people who can't fight the good fight alone, taking down bad people who don't care who they hurt; not that it's written down or comes with medals and fancy titles. It's about what you do, the stuff you learn along the way, not blindly focusing on some happy ending. I know it might not feel that way around here sometimes, not the way this family tends to prioritize stuff," she amended, "but that's what really matters. Okay?"
"Okay," Henry agreed, still a little sad, then asked, "So... are you gonna get a house now or what? I know Aunt Anna wants you to watch her place, but I don't want to stay there with you. It's creepy."
"I'm not planning to live-in house sit, that's for sure with all the 'good for something' stains that would make a black light explode," Emma assured. "I don't know where I'll call home yet. But we'll figure it out."
"Maybe we could even have a stable in the backyard for Geronimo?"
"Maybe you should petition Regina for that, Kid. I don't want to end up mucking stalls!"
The bride and groom appeared then looking suspiciously unkempt. Emma warned her sister, "You'd better not have been having a Titanic moment in my car or this wedding will be followed very shortly by a funeral. It cost a fortune to get The Bug professionally cleaned in Manhattan to get your stank out!"
"Our stank?" Hook scoffed. "Have you any idea the cost of getting your horse's stank out of my cabin?"
He threw a sour look at Henry, "And don't pretend it wasn't you who let the mangy thing out of the hold!"
Anna rolled her eyes and tugged him over toward Nemo while Emma raised a brow at Henry.
"Wasn't me. I swear. He's just a really smart and devious horse."
Emma bit back a laugh. "Still not getting a house with a stable, Kid."
"Was worth a shot."
"All right, everyone!" Nemo announced. "Let's get these nuptials completed so the happy couple can sail off into the... ah... sunset apparently. Don't seem to be where I remember it last. Anyway, then I can get back to finding the klepto mermaid who stole my ship's tableware before the father of the bride stabs me to death!"
The ceremony was short and Emma watched from the docks as her sister sailed off into the sunset... and then got swallowed up by a portal along with the Nautilus.
"The sun is going to go back to rising and setting where it's supposed to, right?" wondered Snow. "Not that it isn't very pretty..."
"Things should begin to return to normalcy by morning," Gold interjected, leaning on his cane as he limped over from the boardwalk, the magic he'd used to heal his old injury undone by The Apprentice's handiwork. "Though I imagine it will take a few days for everything to be completely so as the gods do their meddling."
"Whatever normal is around here," David mused. "Not sure we've seen that yet."
"Let's get this over with," Regina spoke up, "before some idiots finds some magic beans or enchanted unicorn dung or Ariel shows up with an enchanted spork."
Together, Emma, Regina, and Gold, combined their magic toward the setting mirror sun. The different colors combined to a shimmering white that briefly made the water glow and struck the barrier around Storybrooke, rippling through the town.
"It won't hold forever," Regina concluded, "but that should keep visitors out for awhile. We just need to make sure no stupid dwarfs try to leave to get PhDs and destabilize things."
"I'll talk to them after the town hall meeting tonight just to impress the point," David assured. "And put up security cameras at the town line. Probably should have done that awhile ago."
"We'd better head back into town then. I'm sure there's a mob gathering to bombard us with questions," Regina said, leading everyone away from the water.
Emma was last. She watched the unnatural sun set and the stars come out, not sure if they were reversed to, but sure Neal would be able to tell her. She wondered if there were stars where he was now, if the sun would rise in the morning - if there was even morning. As long as he was at peace, his soul free after so many years of imprisonment, a life so full of misery and pain, then she supposed it didn't matter.
She'd felt his love for her in that final moment, when existence had been near its end, felt that he was happy, and for that moment she'd shared that happiness with him, one blissful moment when reality was everything it could be and nothing it had been, when even, maybe, she could have reshaped it with their love into the life they both wished had been.
But that wouldn't have restored the balance that was so long missing. It would have been selfish, even if they both deserved it. So she'd let Neal and that dream go, even though she would hold onto that moment of pure joy and love until she saw him again.
"I hope you've found home, Baelfire," Emma told the dark sky, blowing a kiss to the stars before turning to head back toward town and resume her role as Sheriff Swan, bringer of justice to the town of Storybrooke, Maine.
- End Part 1 -
NEW NOTE (EDIT): The first chapter of 'Heathens', a companion piece to this story, is now up to read and review! Wouldn't you rather read about Neal and Merlin having an adventure than that CaptainCharming bromance rubbish on the show? I know I would! WizardFire all the way!
AN:Alecto borrows "time aberrations" from Legends of Tomorrow along with some dialogue. I was sorely tempted to have her kill Zelena, but since Merlin hadn't yet fully assumed the role of Death, it just wouldn't work plotwise, so I had her wipe Baby Robin out of existence and take her magic instead. Oops! Emma's "speech" is from The Flash. And Anna's spiel about being "unhinged" is taken from Princess Margaret's words to her sister Elizabeth in The Crown Episode 10. Bits of this and their previous conversation in Chapter 13 were inspired by Episode 8 and the overall relationship between the two royal sisters and their personalities (to some degree) as portrayed on the Netflix show. Elizabeth, like Emma, has a leadership responsibility that her sister envies while she envies her sister having what she perceives as a confidence in her won skin, charm, and wit that she lacks, that gains people's adoration for her as a person rather than reverence for her duty and what she represents. She's actually quite insecure and always feels at a disadvantage in her duty because her parents gave her no academic education, so she struggles to understand and converse with members of government on top of having to reconcile being daughter/wife/sister with being Queen, something her uncle, the abdicated King Edward VIII, likens to mythological creatures like minotaurs and sphinx that are part human/part monster and ever at war with themselves; I see Emma in her savior status similar to this, always picking duty even if she hates that she has to do it and that it may hurt the ones she loves. (And that in canon instances when Emma did such things, it was Emma's strength and conviction as a savior that over-powered her sister's selfish and individualistic nature). Elizabeth has also long been troubled that her parents called her their "pride" and Margaret their "joy" and it seems somewhat common knowledge in the family that Margaret was their father's favorite, no matter what their mother might claim, which just seems to reinforce Elizabeth's insecurities at being valued for what she can do, not who she is regardless of titles and duties. Anna, like Margaret, sees her sister as unsympathetic to her situation as the sister without any duty but still bound by its expectations and regulations, particularly in her love life; she is devastated when Elizabeth breaks a sisterly promise to support her marriage and as Queen declares that she must choose between duty to the Crown or love, the later which will be disinheritance and (at least temporary) exile like their uncle, simply because her lover is divorced. The difference here, of course, is that while Elizabeth seems to be heading down a path that further disconnects her from her individual self and her family, her own marriage in a rocky place because she did not side with her sister, I wanted Emma to be at a place where, like at the end of Season 1, she was essentially free of her savior status and back to a place where being Storybrooke's protector is a choice rather than inescapable burden, the absence of which means cutting out a part of and diminishing herself. Frankly, I think the show's choice in that regard is just one of the many choices in plot that have worsened Emma as a character, turned her into a plot device rather than a character with conviction and morals that chooses to be a hero because it's the right thing, not because it's demanded or expected of by some unseen hand of fate. So eliminating the Dark Curse and solidifying Storybrooke was a way to un-savior Emma by her fulfilling her duty rather than chickening out of it. And creating Anna, of course, was a way to MacGuffin out of all the atrocious choices the canon character has made since Season 3 both in present and flashbacks.
Other borrowed dialogue in this chapter:
"I'll take a nightmare that's real over a dream that's a lie." — Sara choose reality over getting her dead sister back using time travel and mystical bullshit, Legends of Tomorrow
"You can't just go back and change things like that. Time is sacred and it can't be changed to suit any one person's desires without causing harm to the lives of countless others." —Sara faces off with Merlin over a mystical amulet compass MacGuffin, Legends of Tomorrow
"I can overlook the constant absences, the blatant disregard for rules and regulations, but your moral compass is broken, my friend. I point blank refuse to work with someone whose sense of right and wrong is as flippant as the weather. Someone who thinks friendship is more important than justice. You are unfit to be a CSI. Barry Allen has no place in law enforcement." —Julian, The Flash