"Roland, make your bed and pick up your clothes please, then we can play a game."
"Why can't we go downstairs and play with Regina and Daddy and Henry?" the boy asked as he obediently began pulling blankets up and over the place he had slept last night. It was a child's work and her fingers itched to reach other and smooth over the covers, but she managed to resist and simply continued to change Neal atop the desk. They'd run out of diapers weeks ago and were reduced to using cloth ones with pins from Camelot. She was getting the hang of it, but she was also looking forward to the day that they would be able to go home and use diapers from The Land without Magic again. Secretly, she suspected Neal was looking forward to it as well.
"We'll go down in a few minutes, Roland. Regina and your father are talking, remember?"
"What about Henry?"
Honestly, she didn't know about Henry. She'd come up here an hour ago to get Neal and check on Roland while the others were talking about what to do with Emma. Roland and Neal had both been awake, though while Neal was up just because he was a baby, Roland had heard the entire thing downstairs and been too terrified to cry. It was astounding what he picked up when they were trying so hard to keep things from him. Despite Robin and Granny and Regina and everyone else telling him that things were fine and he shouldn't worry, he'd thought that King Arthur had come to kill his family. He hid under the bed, and it wasn't until Neal started to cry that he got up to soothe the baby so no one would know they were there that he instead tucked himself and baby Neal under this very desk to hide. He'd been terrified when she walked into the room and calming a screaming baby and a terrified toddler was no easy task, but she had managed to get him out from under the desk, assure him everything was alright, and keep track of what was going on downstairs by looking out the window.
She'd observed Killian sitting with Emma for a long while by the well, and she seemed to calm down. The next time that she turned back to look was when she heard the bell downstairs chime, indicating that someone had come inside. She looked outside again and found that it must have been Hook because Emma was alone again, sitting just outside the diner. Hook was nowhere in sight and Emma was contently, and maybe even obsessively, working on her dream catchers again. That was nerve wracking. But at least she was doing it in full view of the others and not hiding it.
From downstairs, she could hear a soft rhythmic vibration of speaking. They were talking. Emma was weaving. It was progress. Though she honestly didn't know if it was good progress or bad. She stood by the window now, Neal in her arms, Roland working on the bed, trying to decipher the body language not of Emma, but of Merlin. She'd heard the door open and close again only a few seconds ago and stood up, expecting to see Killian talking to Emma again. But it wasn't Killian. It was Merlin. She tried to read his body language…hers…but she had no idea what was going on.
"Henry is downstairs," she finally answered Roland off-handedly. Where was Henry? She hadn't seen him since he'd gone downstairs with David and Mary Margaret. Would they let him sit inside as they discussed Emma? Or had they sent him out back? Was he sitting outside the diner, or out with the others doing...whatever they'd all gone off to do while they dealt with the Emma problem. She didn't know anymore. There were so many people here in this little campsite it was hard to keep track of them. It made her head spin if she tried too hard. Her body was growing sorer and sorer by the second from the rowing she'd done the other day, the last thing she needed was her head to hurt as well.
"There!" Roland declared finishing the bed. "Can we go play outside now?"
"Roland…where are your manners?" she turned around to see Robin Hood and Regina standing behind her. She hadn't heard them come up.
"Sorry Daddy. Can we please go play outside now?" Roland begged with a toothy smile that made her smirk even given the stressful situation.
"Would you mind?" Robin asked almost nervously. The timidness was oddly reassuring. He knew he was putting her in a position to babysit and didn't want to make her do that unless it was absolutely necessary. She didn't know what they'd talked about or decided, but she knew that if they needed her, then Robin wouldn't be asking her to babysit. She nodded and stepped forward to take Roland down the ladder Regina had made to get up to the second floor since the stairs were still in Storybrooke, but Regina held up her hand.
"Actually...I'd like a word first," she stated making her heart race. Maybe it wasn't as simple as it seemed. Robin Hood took Neal from her arms and held Roland's hand as the boy hopped out of the room. Regina…Regina stood before her, abnormally quiet, looking worried.
"Regina?" she questioned automatically crossing her arms over her chest, the only thing she could do to protect her heart. It was silly, she knew. Everyone was downstairs, Robin knew she was up here alone, he wouldn't leave her in danger...but she'd learned that being weary around Regina was always in her best interest. "What's happening?"
"The impossible," she answered sitting down on the bed. "Something is bothering me…"
She shook her head. "What?"
"Merlin told us how we need to get the Darkness out of Emma, or at least that's what he wants us to think…"
Riddles. She knew that "hate" was a powerful word but in this case it was appropriate. She hated riddles. Rumple, Regina, David…why couldn't everyone just say what they had to say?! "Start from the beginning," she insisted. "What happened with Merlin? What did he or…didn't he tell you?"
Regina nodded. "There are two things that we need to get the darkness out of Emma. It turns out King Arthur was right about one thing, we do need the sword and the dagger to be one, but the magic is so old or advanced or both that there's only one thing that can reunite them, something called the Spark of Prometheus, have you heard of it?"
She nodded. She'd read about it in the same mythology book that she'd read about the Drink of Ursa, though it too had a different name. "I've heard of the Fire of Prometheus, and I assume they are one in the same."
"What do you know about it?"
She took a deep breath and sat down at the desk. "The story I heard was that Prometheus was an ancient demi-god. The World Without Magic says that he created mankind, but the story I know is different. He made a bet with another god that lesser beings, beings without magic, could survive on earth without magical assistance. So the gods created a small group of them and agreed not to interfere with the beings but after only a week, when the beings began dying off Prometheus took pity on them and found what he thought was a loophole. He didn't interfere with the beings he just set a small fire for them to find, it enabled them to cook food and survive but the god he made the bed with didn't see things the way he did. He lost the bet because he cheated and was cast out of heaven but allowed t keep his magic. Our world says that's why there are some people are able to do magic and others aren't. Those who can are descended from Prometheus, who was stripped of his immortality but allowed to keep his magic. Those who cannot are descended from the non-magical group that was created for the bet."
Regina nodded. "Any idea what became of him or his fire?"
She shook her head. "Without immortality, I assume Prometheus died eventually, but the fire was said to be unquenchable because it was created by a god, it could never be destroyed, but I have no idea where it would be. Until this moment I've always believed it was just a myth."
"Well, apparently it's the only thing old and pure enough to put Excalibur back together again and once it is then we can use it to 'cut away' Emma's magic, the Curse of the Dark One. Merlin says he knows where the spark is. He's taking Emma with him to get it; they'll be back by nightfall, the rest of us…we're going off to get the other half of the sword."
And there was so much about the idea that just didn't make sense. "But-but the other half of the sword is with Arthur! After we freed Lancelot, I doubt he's going to let it out of his sight! And the castle is a day away! You won't be back by nightfall, and if you steal that sword from him, it's not like Lancelot! He'll come after us! We'll need to move the diner again!"
Regina nodded again. "I can use magic to get us there," she insisted. "I'm sure he'll have wards set up inside the castle against my magic by now, but I can get us close enough, as for getting it from Arthur…we'll figure that out now."
Now? While they were in the bedroom and everyone else was downstairs? Or was she not the "we" they were thinking of. "What's wrong Regina? Really? What's really bothering you because it doesn't sound like any of that-"
"Something just doesn't feel right," she interrupted quickly. "And it doesn't make sense. Merlin told us what we needed, but he didn't tell us how we could use them! Taking someone's magic away from them even if they are willing isn't easy and 'cutting magic away' can hardly be as easy as cutting away a person's shadow."
"You think Merlin is leaving something out."
"He has to be! He's given us the ingredients, but he hasn't given us the recipe. And I know he's not exactly the most forthcoming guy in the room but something about this…it just feels wrong," Regina finally concluded looking at her with sad, pleading eyes.
Now she understood. She wasn't part of the "we" that would meet downstairs and discuss break-ins, she was part of another secret "we".
"You want me to look into it," she assumed. "You know we don't have a lot; I didn't get to take the entire tower with me, and I didn't plan for anything like this-"
"I understand it's a longshot, but I've seen you work miracles with less when you figured out where Glinda was with books you stole in a heartbeat."
She felt herself blush and look away, trying not to let Regina's flattery influence her, though now that she'd said it that was difficult to do. Regina was right; she had found them answers when they knew a lot less than they did. Considering the tasks they normally gave to her, this should have been a piece of cake! If only she wasn't missing one essential thing.
"I've worked miracles with less than only a handful of books at my disposal when I knew which books to take and what I was looking for. I didn't plan for this when we left, Regina, if the information isn't there…it's not there."
Regina set her jaw and looked her in the eye with unphased determination. "Fine. Then at least we'll know we went into this with our eyes as open as they could be."
Regina is me in this chapter. Is Regina you too? I kinda hope so. Nothing about this seemed right. And yes, I know it was probably a problem on the writers part, "Oh my goodness we've only got three more episodes to solve this problem! Double time now!" But the more I thought about it the more I began to wonder...did Merlin expect Emma to kill herself? Dark, I know, and they'd obviously never come right out and say it because of that, "family show" and all that jazz. But the more I thought about it, the more it began to make sense to me. I don't know, it's just a possibility, but if you ever have the theory in your head that the Darkness must be put inside of one vessel and then killed with the sword for the curse to die away, then watch the series and what Merlin says to Emma and how he tries to prepare her...it's a bit frightening. So I created this conversation for Regina because I think she would sense that if it's what was going on. I'm not saying it was; I'm just saying that Merlin is kind of shady.
Thank you Fox24, Grace5231973, and Ladybugsmomma for your reviews on the last chapter. Fun fact, we're on the countdown. There are only ten chapters left in MT; that means ten more chapters until we are back in Storybrooke and Moments Clear and Unclear can begin. Now there is a real Rumbelle story I hope that ya'll will be able to really sink your teeth into. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed and will continue to enjoy what's in store for MT. Not a lot to work with but I did my best and you can trust me when I say there are still some good chapters coming up (because Lord knows we can't trust A&E when they say it)! Peace and Happy Reading!
