***
James opened his eyes. He blinked several times to clear them. Then he groaned. He was lying in Snow's glass coffin, with the lid off. And the only person in the room was Red.
"Not who you were hoping for, eh?" She joked.
James moaned and tried to sit up.
"That was one powerful drug that's wearing off. It's going to throb for awhile." Red added helping him to a sitting position. She handed him a bottle of water.
James drank it greedily, just now sensing his desert-like mouth. "Where's Snow?"
Red sighed. "I don't know. Last I saw her, she was standing outside the library with Regina."
James felt a sense of dread. "Please tell me you didn't wake me to tell me she has gone to the dark side."
Red shook her head. "Actually, I think Regina and her are once again on the same side. Team Insanity. Fighting the beast inside is necessary sometimes. Trying to destroy it is suicide."
James frowned. "Why would they try and extract it again? It didn't work before."
Red sighed. "I don't think they are trying to extract it."
James frowned. "Well, what then?"
Red shrugged. "I don't know. But we have other things to worry about as well. Emma, Henry and Pinocchio went into the mines several hours ago and nobody has come back out.
***
They made it much further on the way back out of the mines, without the beast's interference. But Emma knew that, it leaving them alone, was too good to be true.
Especially since August was seriously beginning to stumble. With two wooden legs, it was becoming harder and harder to walk over all the rocky terrain.
Emma was beginning to worry that he wouldn't make it to the surface. Because the two of them, couldn't possibly carry him.
August tripped and fell.
"Henry? Maybe we should trade on the necklace. I don't think either of us will be able to carry August if he turns to wood before we get out of here."
Henry nodded. August only weakly protested, but allowed Henry to lock it around his neck.
The three of them began to move again. But not for long.
Emma opened her eyes again. She was back on the hospital bed. But this time her feet were shackled on it. She swore again. "Let me out of here." But no one came. There was just a glass of water and a cup with a pill. And a note. "I'm not fighting you like last time. Take this and you can get up."
Not real. But this was thought so half-heartedly. Her head was pounding and her body sweaty. A heavy task lay on her shoulders in Storybrooke. Lifetimes of suffering, with an end nowhere in sight. How could she possibly fix such a broken world? Here things were so much simpler. Like a take a pill and feel better...
Emma turned and saw August looked at her through the window. Or was it Dr. Booth. "Please just take it. You're so much better when you don't fight us. You were so close to being released. Then you had to stop taking your medication. Don't you want something more then this? A life. Perhaps with me?"
This last part was so raw and pleading.
Emma met his eyes. A doctor and a patient, that was never going to work. Just like a little boy and a baby.
Not real.
But even she didn't want to believe that anymore. The magical world she had seen was suffering and pain. She had been forced to carry a burden she no longer wished to carry. A darkness she wished to erase.
Emma took the pill.
"I'll be back, princess, when it has taken effect." Dr. Booth sighed. "...Thank you."
Emma nodded. Princess. It made her think of Storybrooke. Not real...not...
Emma felt her eyes closing and a heavy drugged sleep fell over her.
"We're losing her." August moaned, shaking Emma. Despite Emma's weak protests that what she was seeing was not real, she seemed to have sunk even further into her mind.
Henry grabbed her hand. He closed his eyes. He had an idea. "Give me back the necklace, please."
August obliged. Henry began to force his own thoughts in her direction. Like he imagined telepathy to be like. That sort of thing worked, right?
Emma appeared to be sleeping at her desk. Henry placed himself in the scene.
"Hey!" A voice greeted her. "Don't fall asleep at the desk."
Emma opened her eyes. Henry! His hands were on his hips and her feet were on the desk.
She quickly stood up. Emma looked around, she was dressed like normal and wearing a sheriff badge. Henry was wearing a backpack and gesturing. "Come on, you said you would walk me to school."
Emma nodded. She took his hand. It was warm, but nothing more. His smile was genuine and he looked at her with a sparkle in his eyes. Emma smiled back hesitantly. Did she love him? Was he real?
She shook her head. That was a stupid question. Of course he was. And he was the best possible thing that could have happened to her.
They walked outside together.
Emma was still in her thoughts, however. She turned and stopped. "What?" Henry asked.
Emma hugged him tightly. Nothing.
"This isn't real. I should feel something." Emma protested.
" I lost her." Henry groaned. "How am I supposed to know what my hugs feel like to you, mom?" He closed his eyes and tried to re-enter. But she was awake now in her mind, not dreaming. If he just popped into the scene here, clearly she would see the flaw in the logic, right?
Emma opened her eyes. There was the little boy again. Henry. He looked just like she imagined he would. Unfortunately. A bit more like his father then she would have hoped. But he seemed kinder and honest in the eyes.
"Hey!" Henry smiled.
Emma frowned. She looked around. A mental ward. He shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be here. Maybe she really was crazy.
"I'm here to rescue you. Bring you back to Storybrooke. We need to get out of the mines. But first you need to let go of this vision. You're not crazy. I'm real."
Emma sighed. "Of course, you are real, kiddo. Just not right now. Not here. You are living somewhere far away, probably getting ready for a birthday party."
Henry shook his head. "Not without you. It wouldn't be a party without you."
Emma smiled. "You are just like I imagined you'd be. Smart, stubborn and charming. But kind."
She was crazy, but she was going to be free of this. Maybe one day, she would get to meet him...no. That was crazy talk.
"Have a cupcake for me, okay?" Emma added her voice sounding strained. "I always bought one for my birthday, every year. And a chocolate one on yours, I figured you like chocolate best."
Henry paled. She remembered him every year. She had never told him that before.
"It was hard. Deciding to give you up. But it was the best thing for you. I couldn't be a mother, what kind of life would that have been for you, roaming the roads, no home, no family, I didn't even have a high school degree, often times no money?"
It sounded like she was giving him up, all over again. "I do like chocolate best. With cinnamon. Remember?" Henry's voice was desperate. "Just like you."
Emma wearily smiled. "I always bought a white cupcake for my birthday. White like a swan. Because that was what I wanted to be."
"You can be, you are. A real one." Henry protested.
Emma shook her head.
"That's crazy talk, kiddo. Now go enjoy your life." Emma flipped over in the bed.
Henry felt himself fading out. He was being pushed out.
"Dammit." He screamed, pounded the wall of the mines. They rumbled in response.
August grabbed him and held him.
"She is giving me up all over again." He sobbed into his chest. "I fail." A slow energy drain seemed to follow each sob. That seemed unusual and frightening. Henry blinked.
"Oh, no!"
"What?" August panicked.
Henry tried to stand, but he tripped, his vision shifting.
"No, no, no..." He muttered.
"Not you too, kiddo." August grabbed him.
Henry shook his head. "No, not the Beast. I'm dying."
"What?" August's eyes grew wide.
"The bought allegiance. I swore. I was commanded not to swear and I forgot. I broke Regina's only command and now I'm dying."
August began to pant. Henry did look weaker and his voice weary.
"Can we fix it?"
"I don't know. Regina might be able to." Henry muttered.
August turned from one to the other. Emma to Henry and back. He couldn't carry Emma, not in his weakened state. But maybe he could save Henry.
August fiercely grabbed Emma's hand. "I'm coming back for you. You hear me. If it is the last thing I do, I will find you."
Emma made no response, but her breathing seemed calmer.
August picked up Henry. God, he was heavy. No longer really little anymore.
And he stumbled towards the exit. So close yet so far.
***
Regina had been hoping to run into Nova, but she was not hoping for what else that would bring. Nova had not been difficult to locate and Regina soon knew why. Her magical energies were flurried and anxious and Regina found her inside of Rumplstiltskin's kitchen. Standing over a blade. His blade.
Her eyes were closed and she was slowly backing away from the table. She fluttered them open, sensing Regina's entrance.
"Don't come any closer, Regina!" She yelled with more force than Regina had ever seen.
"Is that it?" Regina asked.
Nova didn't answer. Her eyes widened though.
Regina turned her head.
Snow had entered the room.
And she had seen the knife.
"Oh, my God." Snow whispered.
Nova took a deep breath. "Back up slowly and stop looking at it. It helps if your eyes are closed. We don't want to do anything foolish. We just need to leave quickly."
Regina frowned. "We are just going to leave it lying here?"
"Yes. Rumpelstiltskin will be back soon, I'm sure. He will hide it again and we can all pretend we were never here." Nova trembled.
Snow bent over and picked up a chess piece on the floor. It was a knight. It was white. White, white. "Was it inside of the chess board?" She gestured to the open wooden box across the room.
Nova nodded. "Belle ran off with most of the pieces in her pockets. It was really trying hard to draw her in. She fled pretty quickly."
Snow nodded. She flipped the piece to see the bottom. In elegant script, a name was carved, but a knife mark had been scratched across it. It was still legible though. Snow's lip trembled slightly. Regina grabbed the piece from her hand.
Daniel.
Regina closed her eyes. She had always known, that Rumpelstiltskin never did anything that didn't aid him somehow. That she had been played over and over again. But a new fury arose in her. Somehow, this was proof that Daniel had been part of Rumplestiltskin's plot from the beginning. And he had suffered and died.
"Rumplestiltskin will lie and sneak around no more. I will have the truth, the whole truth. If I have to force it from him." Regina snarled. She clenched her hand around the piece. In an instant, her other hand was wrapping itself around the hilt of the blade.
"Regina!" Snow gasped. She tried to approach her. "I know you are angry, which is exactly why you should put that down."
Regina pointed it at her. "Just try and stop me." And voice was raw and deep. Snow sighed. Lifting a hand, she magically threw Regina back against the table. The table broke, but Regina was unharmed. However, the knife left her hand.
Regina flung Snow backwards, knocking pictures off the wall.
"You can't willfully harm me. This fight is petty and a waste of time." Regina sneered and reached for the knife on the floor again.
Snow lunged for her, a long forgotten fight move, surfacing. Regina flung her back with magic against the cabinets. A cut formed on Snow's arm, but it sealed itself, leaving only dried blood.
Snow stood. "I know, I'm not trying to harm you though. I just can't let you leave with that."
Regina smiled. She grabbed Nova's arm. "But you will. Because you care about Natalie here and therefore I can easily win this fight." She pointed the knife at Nova's throat.
Nova trembled.
Snow swore and closed her eyes, briefly trying to think. She opened them again, trying to hide her fear. "Please, Regina let's think this through. What good will this do?"
"Nothing. But I'll get burned either way, good or bad. So why should I care anymore?" Regina growled.
"That's the Beast's sort of thinking." Nova whispered. Regina narrowed her eyes and pushed the knife up against Nova's throat.
Nova's magic crackled as she closed her eyes too. But nothing impressive happened.
Regina laughed, a strange bitter cackle. "That's it?"
She was about to say something else, when her cell rang. Or rather Mary Margaret's cell with Regina's sim card in it. The cell that was in her pocket.
"Are you going to answer that? Might be someone important to you." Snow deadpanned.
Regina raised an eyebrow.
The only person at this point, who would be calling her would be... Henry.
Regina released the knife from Nova's throat and pushed Nova up against the wall. She picked up the phone from her pocket.
"Who is this?"
Silence.
"Henry, are you there? That didn't sound like you."
Time seemed to freeze. Snow had to remember to breath.
"What? What's going on? Where are you?" Regina began to sound anxious. Her focus shifted. Nova fell to the floor.
Regina disappeared in a puff of magic.
Snow jumped to Nova. "Are you okay?"
Nova nodded slowly. She fingered the thin burn on her neck where the knife had touched it.
Snow sighed. "I can't do it. I've tried. We do nothing, but destroy each other, despite our best attempts."
Nova frowned. She pointed to the door.
"Go. Follow her."
Snow frowned.
Nova massaged her neck and her arm. "You're right. You can't save her. But Henry can."
She met Snow's eyes, with a look of intensity.
"Go make sure he's able."
