The Promised Neverland AU

By: FunahoMisaki

(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)

"You two stole the key to Mama's secret room didn't you?" Emma asked glancing at the two of them who had approached her while looking grim.

"Yeah…" Don said not even asking how she knew. Obviously she had expected it or had known that he would do it.

"Feel free to deck Norman and Ray when we go and meet up with them in the library." Emma said without batting an eye as she recalled that Don had decked the boys after she had showed them the Morse code messages in the books.

"Good. I've been waiting for this." Don cracked his knuckles eagerly, he had been waiting to pay Norman back for lying to him so blatantly.

"When you're done hitting them can you storm out angrily with Gilda right behind you? Sister Krone will see us talking and overhear what we say once we're outside and she turns out to be an invaluable ally." Emma asked bluntly and Don grinned at her.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Norman says that I lose my temper too quickly or jump to conclusions too quickly all the time. I can definitely storm out and make it look realistic." Don said pointing a thumb at himself while Gilda merely nodded to Emma, trusting she knew what she was talking about when she said Krone would be a good ally.

"How is bringing in the other kids going?" Emma asked glancing at Gilda who was doing very well in her studies and stealth training.

"We managed to get the ones over the age of eight in on it, Nat and Anna are going to work on the seven year olds next before we go to the six year olds. They're believing us so far but most of them want to hear about the truth from you. You'll have to talk to them whenever you get a chance." Gilda said and Emma nodded her head in understanding. Most of the kids had only believed them last time when she had told them the truth herself, even the ones Don and Gilda told had to confirm it with her first before they believed it.

"See if you can gather them during free time tomorrow under the guise of hide and seek or tag and I'll make sure I talk to them myself." Emma said and Gilda nodded and made a mental note to gather the younger ones tomorrow.

"How was that?" Don asked Emma quietly after he had punched both Norman and Ray and then stormed off. He had thought that her little speech was impressive however and wondered if she had thought it out beforehand or if it had been something she had said in her last go around.

"You both were perfect." Emma said grinning at them and Don smirked, glad that he had helped her forward her plan a bit to save everyone this time.

"Tomorrow while Ray is getting his cheek tended to by mama and we're walking in the woods, we'll be confronted by Sister Krone who will reveal that she was a Grace Field child who was given a chance to be a Mom. Make sure you try to act shocked when you see the numbers on her neck. From there…leave it to me." Emma said and they both nodded their heads, trusting Emma to do what she thought best.

After all she had already lived through all of this before and knew what not to do.

"How is the book I pointed you to?" Gilda asked making Emma smirk a little bit.

"I wish we had that the first time around. Let me know if you find anymore books like it." Emma said already going over all the quotes and new knowledge she had thanks to the book. Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak…she could only imagine how useful wisdom like that would have been the first time through.

"Of course." Gilda said nodding once and Emma smiled at her before she separated from them and went a little further down the hall.

"We'll be leaving soon…and…while she may be raising us to ship us out like cattle…she does love us and…she's still my mama." Emma said softly as she noticed them staring at her, they both froze for half a second. They forgot for a moment that Mom was actually Emma's real mom. They forgot that Emma said Mom did actually care about them all and was forced into this in order to survive.

"Go spend time with her Emma. We'll handle anything else that needs to be done tonight." Gilda said gently and Emma gave her a thankful smile before going to Mama's room.

"This must be so hard on her. Knowing that if we're caught her own mother will ship her out to be eaten…or to turn her into someone like Mom." Don said softly in a show of understanding and sympathy for Emma.

"Not to mention that last time she wasn't Mom's daughter, or if she was then she hadn't known it. To learn about that after what Ray did last time…" Gilda said and they were still sure of the theory that Ray had set himself on fire and killed himself and they didn't want to know how many of their siblings, maybe even Mom herself as well, in order to let his sister escape.

They didn't think to ask Emma about how she escaped last time, how everything went. Anna had mentioned that it might be traumatic for her as well as cause her to suffer from a mental breakdown. She was doing good learning first aid and how to treat most physical injuries from Mom…but Anna had also found books mentioning mental injuries and diseases.

Anna had said that just based on what she had seen of Emma so far in life and what they had guessed had happened her first time around….Emma seemed to have PTSD and a bit of Survivors Guilt. Honestly they couldn't blame her if she did and they didn't think anything less of her.

She was suffering from these mind disorders and still pushed through them to try and save everyone.

"Yeah…remind me to work even harder at mastering what I can. We need to do whatever it takes to help her." Don said and Gilda nodded silently in agreement. She was going to scour every book in the library searching for things to help them, and she was definitely going to work on memorizing Ugo's Adventures to help them out when they got out into the outside world.

They wouldn't ask for what happened to everyone last time, they didn't want to dredge up those memories that probably haunted Emma's nightmares every night.

They won't need to know because whatever happened…they were going to make sure that it didn't happen this time. Emma came back in time to save and protect everyone else at the expense of herself.

So it would be up to the four of them to protect Emma.

If Emma was the queen that came to save them all, then they'd be her loyal knights.

"Goodnight Gilda." Don said almost as an after thought as he continued on to his room, still trying to come up with new ways he could make himself stronger and better so that he could help and protect Emma.

"Goodnight Don." Gilda said nodding to him, equally lost in her thoughts on what she could do to help Emma.

If the orange haired girl could suffer through everything she was in order to save them…then Gilda would do anything she could to help lighten Emma's suffering. She had already been through too much.

"Make sure you sleep Anna, you won't be of any use to Emma if you're sleep deprived." Gilda said immediately when she saw the blond with the braids still awake as she sat in bed reading another medical book that she had found.

"Let me finish this last bit on broken bones and I'll go to sleep." Anna said nodding and Gilda merely nodded once in return before getting in her own bed to sleep.

Anna was even more determined to master what she could of medicine and all as fast as she could ever since she realized that the segments on PTSD and Survivors Guilt described Emma almost perfectly.

If Don was going to be Emma's archer or fighter, and Gilda her personal assistant and stealth master, and Nat her gardener and herbalist…then Anna was going to be her doctor.

And if there was one thing that they all agreed with aside from Emma being the 'Queen' of their group…it was that they were going to be the very best they could be for Emma.

Their Queen deserved no less than that.