Chapter 40: Operation Starsea
The boy destined to be the Author had actually created yet another operation; Operation Cobra for breaking the curse, Operation Mongoose to help Ginny find her happy ending, and now Operation Starsea...he had chosen that name because the stars and seas were beautiful to look at but did not reveal their true natures; both were capable of producing life in some form or another but were also extremely dangerous, lethal to those that did not look beyond the surface and see what lay beneath.
Operation Starsea's main objective was to discover why people's emotions were opposite of what they truly felt and if possible, to break whatever spell or curse that caused it. Thus enabling Artz to finally be accepted by the denizens of Storybrooke but for Henry, he just wanted to hug her. She was his godmother and unofficial aunt, yet he couldn't stand to be around her for more than five minutes before ultimately running away.
Until the spell could be broken, Henry had started leaving notes for her to read, some of them turning into impromptu treasure hunts especially for holidays and their birthdays. Sweet Menti Celesti, she honestly loved that kid...her godson. That had been quite the shock when the Evil Queen designated her as the boy's godmother after Dr. Hopper's near crucifixion.
Gin basically told the whole town to fuck off with that little announcement and later that night, they ended up in yet another fight resulting in the redhead falling down the stairs. She didn't really remember much but she had heard her Ginny practically screaming for Graham to escort an ambulance to her home to take her to the hospital.
Artz had drifted in and out of consciousness a lot over the next few days, each time she woke, someone different was there and every time she dreamed, she saw the same thing, a hand plunged into her back and her chest bleeding profusely. The problem was that the hand in her back was holding her heart, not moving, not ripping it out...almost like it was trying to make it appear as if she were about to die, but in actuality, she wasn't. As for the injury to her chest, she wasn't quite sure who did it because the image kept changing from person to person.
What she did know was that Emma was being dragged away by her mother, screaming for them to save the dimensional traveler before ultimately disappearing. She knew that the blonde haired savior cared for her. Her precious Swan Lake had fought the hardest to befriend her, only to end up yelling at her on a regular basis.
Their fights were usually one sided, mainly because Artz had just let the woman rant at her until it was out of her system. She was always demanding answers, fighting with her...she even slapped her once but that was a result of ripping away the blonde's mask so she saw that coming. The ginger had seen how frustrated Emma was with the whole situation, not able to comprehend why she kept saying such terrible things to Artz, treating her in such a non-Emma way. It confused the hell out of her which was one of the many reasons why the redhead refused to abandon her.