She forcibly swallowed around the rock lodged in her throat that was barring the passage of air, trying not to think about the coldness that had gripped her whole body, but she wasn't succeeding. The boys. He was after the boys.
"He's not getting them." Robin's fierce assertion returned a little of the warmth back into her extremities, straightening her back as she felt her resolve hardening to iron.
He walked back towards her outstretched hand, fingers clenching tightly down on her own. She sent out a pulse of thought, and the moonlit interior of their bedroom gave way to a bright living room, accompanied by the thump of a heavy foot falling to the ground, and the swish of a sword sliding out of its scabbard.
Checking Robin to make sure she had magicked all the appropriate pieces of clothing and relevant accessories in place, she handed him his bow and turned to see Killian putting his other foot down from the table as he brought out his sword the rest of the way from its scabbard hidden under the sofa cushion, and put down the bowl of popcorn in his other hand.
"Emma!" he yelled getting up, his eyes trying to look everywhere at once, as if he expected trouble to pounce on him any moment now.
"How many times do I have to—" an irate Emma was saying coming into the living room, before stopping dead in her tracks gazing at the two uninvited guest open mouthed.
"Regina what—"
"Trouble that's what." Killian interrupted her. "What is it and where is it coming from?" he asked the two of them in a put upon voice Regina didn't much care for.
"I need you to take the boys and get as far away from here as you can." She said, keeping calm and collected, or at least trying to.
"What? No!"
"Emma we don't have time to argue. Henry won't leave otherwise. You know that. He has to think we're all leaving." Regina was tired of having to have the same argument with her anytime something like this happened. When was she going to learn?
"Regina." she could hear the frown in Robin's voice before turning to look at him standing beside the window. He snatched his hand away from the path of moonlight, the stench of burning flesh wafting to her nose. "He's turning the town into a Marsh." he whispered, horror and dread coloring his voice. "They all should leave. Now."
"Why the hell would I leave if it's that bad?" Emma asked exasperated. "Just tell me what the hell is going on?!"
Robin was right. Instead of answering Emma, Regina sent out another pulse of magic. The sound of breaking glass and heavy bodies rolling off the table and onto the floor filled the room. Snow and David tried to pick themselves off the ground, startled from their lover's embrace in the comfort of their home, and finding themselves magicked into Emma's living room by Regina.
But she couldn't pay their surprised protests any heed, her hands tightening around the small body she held in her arms. Her eyes locked with Robin's. She had almost lost her. She shouldn't have used magic. He said the town was turning into a Marsh. What the hell had she been thinking? The child in her arms began to stir. Regina eased the tight grip she had on her, her hands barely cooperating in their rigid state.
"You got her." Robin murmured, his arms going around her shoulders, his hand tightening reassuringly. Regina had almost lost her when she had magicked her in with her parents, her magic acting erratically and nearly slipping out of her control.
Regina made herself focus on the flabbergasted audience in the living room. "Ask her!" a vexed Emma was saying in answer to her parents worry ridden queries.
The small sleepy protest snapped her attention back to the child in her arms, effectively quieting the rest as well. "Shh honey. I'm so sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep." She crooned to the little girl.
Regina let Killian take the child into his arms. "Let's get you to bed little dove." he murmured into her hair. The child yawned happily, burrowing deeper into her uncle's embrace, locking her hands behind his neck, Snow's eyes worriedly following them as they made their way out of the living room. He threw a glance over his shoulder at the last second, seeming to imply, Get this sorted out before I come back. Regina almost wanted to roll her eyes, but the man was right. They had better convince them to leave, and do it fast.
"This town is soon going to turn into a virtual prison. The air you breathe, the ground you walk on, even the blood in your veins will be under his control."
"He who?" demanded Emma.
Robin closed his eyed in a long blink before opening them and saying resolutely, "My brother."
"But isn't he-"
"He's our unfinished business." Regina cut David off. "We'll take care of him. You just need to get Roland away from his clutches."
"What does he want with him?"
Trust Snow to ask the hardest questions. "You don't want to know."
"What about all the people? How are we going to-" Snow was interrupted by the sound of chimes coming from all their wrist-phones simultaneously.
Robin looked up from punching the message into his own. "Taken care of." He said. Regina looked at her own wrist-phone, the flashing message Code Red taking up the entire projected screen.
David was the first one to speak up. "The emergency codes. I'd forgotten about them…"
"Now you see why we had the town work on the evacuation drill last summer." Killian said coming in again. "The boys are busy with the ship model but they will be down soon." he added as he threw a pair of wrist-phones on the coffee table. Henry's and Roland's to be exact. Good, she had been worried they'd come running down after getting that message.
"It doesn't matter how much we worked on it." David said. "There is going to be panic. People won't just calmly start for the town exit."
"That's why you are all leaving while we handle the situation." Regina bit out.
"But-"
"Every moment we spend arguing it's another moment he gains more dominion over Storybrooke." Robin cut off Snow's protest. "Have faith in us, like we do in you."
"David and I will take care of the town. You and Emma take the youngsters out." Killian forestalled any further objection by starting for the front door. That man knew the importance of action instead of wasting time with pointless arguments.
Opening the door had Killian pausing before it; the look on his face meaning only one person could be standing on the other side. "First the town starts crawling with Elven death magic." Rumple's annoyed tone carried through. "And now this." He added as he came through and took a wrist-phone out of his pocket that was flashing the same emergency message. "Anyone care to explain?"
"It's my brother." Robin told him resignedly.
"Your brother? The Necromancer?"
Regina could practically feel Robin's annoyance at the use of the term Necromancer, which he said didn't technically apply to William. "Yes him." he answered in lieu of an argument. "Now you see why you all have to leave?"
"You heard the man. Why are you still standing here?" Rumple snapped at the rest.
"You think we should leave?"
"Absolutely. Belle is already helping with the evacuation." He told Emma. He turned to Robin and her. "You should come too. We'll ward the place off and leave him to it."
"We will. We need to stall him first so everyone can get out safely."
"We should get going." David said to Killian as he turned to kiss Snow goodbye.
"Just be careful." Emma told the two departing men. "And don't be late." She threatened.
Killian turned in the doorway. "To clarify, don't be dead late, or-"
In answer Emma drew his lips to hers for a fierce kiss. "Die and I'll kill you both."
"Come on Romeo." David said forcibly dragging the former Captain away. Regina shook her head internally. Though she and Robin were no better come to think of it. She turned to him. Shaky magic or not, they still needed it to get to where they needed as fast as possible. He fingers engulfed hers. She wished he wasn't always so eager to put his life in her hands that easily. He smiled at her almost chidingly. She sighed. Fine, she thought back at him irritably.
"Before you leave." Rumple voice drew both their gazes back. Robin's hand shot out, catching the slim object Rumple had thrown at him. "Thought it might come in handy."
"This is an original arrow..." He breathed out in an awed whisper. "How did you-"
"The boys are coming down." Emma interrupted urgently.
"Tell him we're helping with the evacuation." Regina told her, tightening her grasp on Robin's hand, before the cloud of purple engulfed her vision. Snow's demand that they be careful the last thing she heard.
"This is as far away as I can safely get." Regina said as she took in the dark forest around them. The rot seemed to be worse in here. At least they had materialized under the cover of the dense threes, where the moonlight couldn't burn them to death before they even started, notwithstanding the fact that said foliage was plummeting down to the charred earth at an alarming rate as they watched.
She span around at the muffled cry of pain from Robin. He had gone down on one knee, his hands clutching at his creased forehead "What is it? Robin!" she couldn't make out what he was mumbling under his pain filled breath. The healing magic she was pouring into him didn't seem to be doing any good. Her hands hectically roamed all over his body, trying to find the source of injury and finding none; she couldn't see who was doing this to him. Couldn't make them pay.
Was he muttering fireflies? "What?" She asked worriedly. Did William have something to do with his recurring nightmare?
"Nothing…I'm fine. I'm fine." He rasped. "It's just…The lights…drilling into my brain..."
"What-"
He shook his head violently. "It doesn't matter." He got jerkily to his feet. "We need to move." Robin said, testing the moonlight again. Regina solidified a purple mini dome over them, the tiny magic proving far too difficult to keep steady as the presence of tiny holes all over her magical construct soon proved. She made it as small as she could, tightening it down. They had to move glued together to fit under it, but it would have to do.
Regina gazed around at the forest as Robin spent a few moments just marveling at the arrow Rumple had given him, before he cut his palm open with the tip, and soaking it in his blood. "Are you sure this is going to work?"
He held his fist parallel to the ground, letting the droplets of his blood soak it through. "It better. This is one of Maev's arrows" he cocked the arrow into his bow and readied his shot. She could feel the whole forest breathing with him, the seconds before he released the bowstring stretching into infinity.
Where the drops touched the ground, a silver light began to pulsate. It shot up to the sky at the same time as Robin let go of the string, tunneling through the dome she had over their heads. The arrow cut through the air, the pent up breath of the forest rushing out in its wake. She watched as her magic was absorbed through the ray of light aiming for the moon. The moonlight had stopped being hazardous at least.
The explosion of the silver light almost blinded her. It took her a few seconds to realize the darkness that had replaced it was actually the normal view of the forest at night, and even then it was very hard to see more than a step ahead in the scarce light. They began to walk forward hesitantly. "You think it worked?"
"It worked." He said under his breath. His outstretched hand stopping midway as if by an invisible wall brought a smile to his lips.
She put out a hand to check the barrier for herself. She tried to probe the darkness that lay beyond her splayed fingers, but her night vision was still none existent due to the earlier light show Robin had put on. She let go of a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "They're safe."
The shapes in the dark were starting to get clearer. She could make out the shape of the trees now, and the moonlight glinting off something very white. The hasty step she took back would have made her fall to the ground if it wasn't for Robin's hand at her back. Moonlight glinted off teeth, skin and flesh rotted off to reveal sinew and bone. One side of his face was as perfect as it had been the last time she had seen it years ago, the other lost to the petrification of death. At least this way he looked like he had a grin on his face; better than the emotionless nothingness that resided in his dead blue eyes.
"What have we done?" the horror in Robin's voice couldn't begin to draw any sense from the chaotic melee of her thoughts. Why was William on the other side of their shield? It was supposed to contain him inside with them. So they would get out. So he wouldn't get his hands on the boys. Her hands beat uselessly on the invisible surface that separated her from her boys and the horrors that were hunting them, her magic battering at it with everything she had. Someone was screaming; incoherent shouts of frenzied rage. It was her.
"Stop, love. Stop." Robin's entreaties finally served to the penetrate cacophony in her ears. His arms trapped her to his body. Trapped, like they were trapped on the wrong side of the ward.
"Break it down." she howled at him. "You hear me? Break it down!"
"Sister." the sound of dead leaves rattling in the howling wind hissed. "He can't."