Disclaimer: Don't own them, not making any money with this.

A/N: I apologize - again - for the fact that my muse is a little all over the place right now, jumping between this story and Trauma Team and Let Stars Be My Asterisks, while still giving me yet more strange ideas, and generally enjoying herself at my expense. Oh, and then there's that pesky little thing call Real Life.

A/N: We're nearing the end, and I want to thank everyone again for all the love you've shown this story of mine so far.

Chapter 22: Be Prepared

Snow woke up feeling indescribably exhilarated and excited. She had vanquished the Evil Queen once and for all and freed her beloved daughter from her clutches at the same time. And today she would finally take the crown that was hers by birthright, and then they could all have their happy ever afters.

She lay in bed dreaming of the future she could see spread out before her mind's eye. Blue would find a way back to the Enchanted Forest for them, they would all go back, and she would rule the White Kingdom with her true love and Emma by her side.

Emma would finally have the family that had been taken from her by the Evil Queen. She would have parents who loved her, a son who adored her, and her own true love. Oh, she would make sure that Emma and Neal would have a spectacular wedding! She would throw a ball and invite everyone who was anyone in all the kingdoms, and they would all dance and be happy.

She would make sure that Emma turned into the princess she had always been supposed to be, and Henry would be trained in everything a prince and future king needed to know, and he would be happy, now that the damning influence of the woman who had raised him was gone.

Their life would be good, now that she had taken out the Evil Queen. Snow sighed happily as she slowly got up from the rather uncomfortable mattress and looked around the small room in a remote hallway of the convent. She couldn't wait to be Queen but even more than that she couldn't wait to see Regina deep in eternal sleep, never to be awoken ever again. Emma would probably insist on something sentimental like a glass coffin for Regina — for Henry's sake — but Snow thought that was not anything the queen deserved. Why keep her body in a pristine condition if there was no chance of her ever waking up? They could spare themselves the trouble and just put her in a normal coffin, and let her rot in her mausoleum — if she even survived the wound from the crossbow bolt long enough to fall into her everlasting sleep. For all she knew Regina was already dead. Well and truly dead.

Snow nodded with a satisfied grin and went to find the shower. Then breakfast, she thought, and to find Blue.

o o o

David hadn't slept much and he was just rubbing his tired eyes when the station's phone rang. He took a fierce joy in the fact that the loud ringing woke the man in one of the cells as well. With a weary grin he let the phone ring another couple of times before finally answering. "Storybrooke Sheriff," he said, probably a little louder than he had to. "Okay, I'll be right over."

He hung up and stood, stretching his back as he did so. "You need to use the bathroom?" he asked his prisoner. "Last opportunity for a little while, or at least until I'm back."

Spencer glared at him but rolled up from the bunk and shuffled to the cell door. "You can't just keep me in here," were the first words he said once David unlocked the door. "I'm going to be mayor of this hellish place soon, and then I'm going to make you pay for everything."

"Oh, you're going to be mayor?" David asked mildly. "That would surprise me a great deal. I can't see anyone voting for you. The people would rather vote for an ogre than you." He pushed him towards the station's bathroom. At the door he turned Spencer around to cuff his hands in front of him. "Too bad you're up against Snow and Regina in the election, and who knows who else . You don't stand a snowball's chance in hell."

"One day I'm going to kill you," Spencer threatened.

David pushed him through the door and closed it behind him. "You tried before and didn't manage," he reminded him. "Now you need to get in line."

When Spencer was finished, David put him back in the cell, conveniently forgetting to take off the handcuffs. "I'll be back later," he said over his shoulders from the doorway. "Maybe you should start working on your defense."

He walked straight over to Granny's to speak to Tink who had called him there. "Good morning, Ruby," he greeted. "Granny," he nodded. "Can I have some coffee, please?"

"You look like you need at least a bucket," Ruby commented.

"Wouldn't hurt," he shrugged. "Where's Tink?"

"I'm over here," Tink's voice came from one of the booths, over the top of which she could barely be seen.

"What's this about then?" Davis asked once he was seated across from her, the biggest coffee mug Ruby could find in front of him.

"Hook," Tink sighed.

David was instantly alert. "Do you know where he is?"

Tink shook her head regretfully. "But I do know where he isn't," she replied. "Storybrooke."

"What?"

"I checked the harbor again first thing this morning and his ship is gone," Tink explained. "So unless someone else decided to join the piracy trade, he chose to make a run for it."

"Damn." David rubbed his face. "Emma's not going to like that."

"I think Emma has other things on her mind right now," Tink said dismissively. "And I say good riddance to Hook." She scowled. "I'm just furious that I can't kick his ass now."

"Well, you can always help us kick Blue's if what Regina and Emma said is correct," David suggested.

"Oh, I'm certain it is." Tink's face cleared and a grin appeared that looked almost feral. "And it will be my pleasure." She cleared her throat. "Any idea on how to get Snow away from Blue's influence?"

David sighed into his coffee. "I haven't talked to Emma or Regina yet," he whispered to make sure nobody could overhear them. "But I think we're all going to have to work together. Can I count on you?"

"Absolutely," Tink replied without hesitation and just as quietly. "I'm going to go to talk to Belle and try to find something in Gold's books about the dark wand. And if that doesn't get us anywhere, I think I should try and talk to Nova before the town meeting starts."

"Be careful," David urged. "We can't have Blue suspect anything … and I really don't want to see Snow hurt just because she does something reckless and stupid under that wand's influence."

"I promise."

o o o

Tink found Belle in the library, exactly where Ruby had told her she would be. Tink smiled inwardly at how Ruby had blushed when Tink had talked to her after breakfast, how she hadn't been able to stop smiling as she explained where Belle would be at this time of day. Ah, young love, Tink thought, and the fearsome werewolf gets the cutest little puppy eyes. Wonder if Belle also has stars in her eyes?

Belle might not have stars in her eyes when she talked about Ruby but there was an undeniable blush on her cheeks and her eyes fairly glowed with warmth. "How long have you and Ruby been seeing each other?" Tink asked curiously as Belle poured her a cup of tea.

The teapot clattered against the china cup. "Seeing Ruby? Wh-what do you mean?"

Uh-oh. You should really stop meddling in other people's love life. If only it weren't so much fun and so, so rewarding if it worked out. Tink sat up straighter. "Well, from the way you look when someone mentions her and the way Ruby practically glows when she's talking about you, I thought … ah, forget about it."

But Belle had picked up on exactly what Tink wanted her to. "Wait, what do mean Ruby's glowing when she talks about me?"

"Exactly that," Tink said with a shrug. "Have you never seen her look at you? Or the way you look at her?"

Belle's faraway look told Tink that she was cataloguing all her interactions with Ruby in her head, and from the smile on her face she had figured out what Tink had meant. Tink left Belle to her thoughts and got up to finish pouring herself some tea. Meddling was hard work, and she needed sustenance.

The clatter of the cups broke Belle from her thoughts, and the smile on her face dimmed a little but didn't leave. "Was there anything I could help you with?" she asked, letting Tink know that the conversation about Ruby was over.

Tink didn't mind. She had sown the seeds, and they had much more urgent things to talk about anyway. "Actually, I wanted to ask you if you thought there might be something in one of Rumplestiltskin's books that might help us against Blue and the dark wand." She sipped her tea. "I wondered if we could find a way to separate Blue from her wand to make it easier to break the spell on Snow."

Belle closed her eyes, mentally running her hands along the books in the library, in her mind, and back in the pawn shop. Suddenly her eyes popped open. "I think we could find something," she said as she stood. "Rumple once told me about this compendium of dark magics that he had, but he always told me he had hidden it in a safe place because it held too much darkness and could never be allowed to fall in other people's hands."

"A compendium of dark magics?" Tink asked. "Any idea where it might be?"

"A few," Belle nodded. "We need to go to Rumple's house."

o o o

Emma slowly drifted to wakefulness when the late morning sun hit her face. She burrowed deeper into the pillow she was clinging to until she realized that it wasn't a pillow at all.

"Good morning," Regina rasped gently, running a hand down Emma's bare back.

Emma blinked a couple of times before stretching up a little to press her lips against Regina's. "Good morning to you too." Her voice was husky from sleep and the screams Regina had coaxed out of her the night before. "Been up long?"

Regina shook her head once. "A little while," she whispered, loathe to break the comfortable bubble of quiet comfort inside the room. "I enjoyed watching you sleep."

"Must have been boring," Emma said self-deprecatingly.

"On the contrary." Regina's voice remained quiet but held a level of sincere firmness that brooked no argument. "I was thinking about the town meeting tonight and what we need to do. Besides," she added, "you're so incredibly beautiful that bored isn't even close to what I feel when I watch you."

Emma blushed and pressed her face into the crook of Regina's neck. "Did you come up with a plan?"

Regina hummed low in her throat. "The most important thing is to get Snow away from Blue, so we can try and break the curse that darkens her heart," she muttered. "We should let the meeting go ahead for a while to lure them into a sense of victory, in the hopes that Blue gets less vigilant."

"And we have an advantage," Emma pointed out. "They don't now you're not actually cursed anymore."

"Which means you should go in alone first," Regina sighed. "Play along as long as you need to while I'll be waiting close by."

Emma nodded. "I'm going to get Snow talking, and I'm going to try and draw her away from Blue."

"Distance probably won't make a difference but it might make it easier to subdue either one of them," Regina agreed.

"I can always freeze Snow again," Emma muttered.

"And you might have to," Regina replied. "That would leave us time to deal with Blue, although it's quite possible she can break your spell quickly."

"Don't forget we have a lot of allies with us that Snow and Blue don't know about," Emma reminded her.

"Allies …" Regina mused. "Such a strange concept for me. I've never had any … apart from Rumple who only used me as a pawn, and maybe Tink who I pushed away when she tried to help me."

"Well, Tink is back in your life, and she's on our side." Emma sat up and pulled Regina into her arms. "And so are Ruby and Belle and, most importantly, my dad."

"Ah yes, the shepherd prince," Regina spoke against Emma's collarbone before giving it a little nip, unable to resist. "The townspeople will follow whatever example he sets, so that should prove quite helpful indeed."

Emma cupped Regina's face and lifted it until their eyes met. "Everything will be fine," she said reassuringly. "And then you can come home."

Regina smirked. "Don't you like it here?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. "I thought you enjoyed the cabin."

Emma grinned widely. "Oh, I absolutely enjoy the cabin," she rasped, remembering the things they had done to each other and with each other within these walls. "And I absolutely think we should come back here whenever we can … but I thought it would be nice to have a sense of normalcy again."

Regina looked thoughtful. "With me in my house and you and Henry in your apartment?" she asked after a moment. "I might actually prefer to stay here."

"You idiot," Emma said fondly. "With you and Henry in your house … and me, if you'll have me."

"Don't steal my pet names," Regina groused, but her eyes sparkled with relief and love, and unshed tears. "You'd really want to share your life with me?"

"Absolutely," Emma confirmed. "If you won't let me move in, I might just camp out on your porch until you take pity on me."

Wordlessly, Regina pulled Emma into a kiss that reverberated through their souls and the cabin around them, connecting them even more deeply. "I love you," she whispered against Emma's lips. "Would you please move in with me?"

Before Emma could respond they could hear the sound of footsteps outside their door. "Mom? Emma?" Henry's voice sounded strangely excited even muffled by the thick door. "Did you feel the earthquake just now?"

"Earthquake?" Emma asked quietly as Regina disentangled herself from Emma to get up and throw some clothes on.

Regina was dressed in a pajama and robes by the time Emma had gotten out of bed, and Regina dressed her with an impatient wave of her hand. "It seems, Ms. Swan," she said with a smirk, "that we can't just realign celestial objects, but also make the earth move."

"That is so neat," Emma remarked under her breath before dancing to the door while singing softly, "I feel the earth move under my feet."

When the door was pulled open, Henry took one look at his two grinning mothers before he blushed slightly and shook his head with a sigh. "Don't tell me," he muttered. "There was no earthquake, right? That was you, wasn't it? Ugh, gross."

Emma and Regina laughed out loud at his behavior and ruffled his head. They simply refused to be embarrassed. "Get used to it, kid."

Henry pulled away from his disgustingly happy parents, although he secretly enjoyed seeing them like this. "Can we have breakfast now? I've been up for hours and I'm starving."

o o o

Tink closed the large trunk with a sigh. This had to have been the tenth trunk she had searched but so far she had found all sorts of dark things from a wicked-looking scimitar, still bloody, to a weird-looking teaspoon, but no book about dark magic. It didn't help that the only lead they had was Belle's vague memory of hearing Rumple say that the book was bound in black dragon hide, had a huge lock in the shape of an eye, and that a blood-red stone adorned its cover.

"Anything?" Belle asked from across the room.

"Nothing," Tink huffed, sitting down on the trunk. "Any other ideas?"

"I'm running out," Belle admitted. It was late afternoon by now and they had been at it for hours. "If we don't find it soon, we won't need it any longer."

"And what exactly is it that you're searching for in my father's personal effects?"

Tink and Belle turned to the door. Leaning against the doorjamb was Neal, looking both amused and wary.

"Bae," Tink greeted him with a smile. "Haven't seen you in a few days."

"Tink," Neal returned. "Belle."

"Hello, Neal," Belle said with a friendly smile. "We're looking for one of Rumple's books … one of the very dark ones. I knew he had it, and he told me he put it somewhere safe, so we thought it might be in here somewhere."

Neal looked around the room at the opened drawers, cupboards, and trunks. "I'm guessing you haven't found it yet," he summarized what he could see. "What do you need that book for?"

Tink and Belle shared a look. "We need it to help Snow," Belle replied.

Neal cocked his head. "That's not all, though, is it?" He turned to the fairy. "Tink?"

"We do need it to help Snow," Tink confirmed Belle's words. "She's under the influence of dark magic, and we hoped the book would help us defeat it."

That caught Neal's interested. "What kind of dark magic?" he asked. "Is the Evil Queen back to her dark ways?"

Both Belle and Tink shook their heads vehemently. "No," Tink said. "Regina hasn't been dark in a while … and she never was as dark as that thing."

Neal ran a hand through his hair, his face showing his frustration. "Why is everybody such a fan of the Evil Queen all of a sudden?" he erupted. "I don't get it. Emma even claims that she loves her!"

Tink took a couple of steps closer to him. "Neal," she said softly. "I know things are hard for you right now … with coming back from the dead and losing your father at the same time." She rested a hand on his arm. "I know the feeling of being lost probably came back in Neverland, and you're looking for your place in this family, this town … But there's one thing you have to know, Neal, and that is that Regina is Emma's true love, and there's nothing anybody here or anywhere else can do about it."

Neal stared at her. "Are you telling me you really believe that they love each other?" He looked from Tink to Belle and back. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It does make sense, though," Belle said softly. "And once you see them together, there is no doubt whatsoever that it is true."

"I have seen them together," Neal admitted reluctantly.

"Then you've seen it with your own eyes," Tink concluded.

Neal squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head a few times but finally let go with a sigh. "I didn't want to see it, I really didn't," he mumbled. "But yes, I could see it. I just don't know where that leaves me … What am I going to do now?"

"For a start, you're going to help us defeat the Blue Fairy," Belle encouraged him. "And the rest will come, step by step."

"The Blue Fairy?" Neal asked. "What does she have to do with any of this? She helped me when I was a kid … she's the personification of goodness."

Tink snorted inelegantly. "Yeah, right."

Neal eyed her curiously. "Okay, I'm sensing there's a story there."

"And it's a long one we don't have time for now," Tink said gruffly. "Just suffice it to say that she was really rather instrumental in how I ended up in Neverland."

Neal furrowed his brow. "But why would the Blue Fairy use dark magic on anyone?"

"It's more the magic object the Blue Fairy is using, actually," Belle tried to explain. "Or maybe the object is using her, who knows? At least that's what we believe. She has the dark wand of the Black Fairy and uses it to turn Snow's heart dark."

Neal started pacing. "And that book you're looking for has information on that wand?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea where your father could have hidden it?" Belle asked.

Neal didn't pause in his pacing. "Give me a minute to think about it?"

"Then you're going to help us?" Tink asked happily.

Neal bit out a sound through clenched teeth that could have been a yes.

o o o

Storybrooke's town hall was packed. Ruby couldn't remember ever seeing more people crammed inside the space, and it was still ten minutes before the town meeting officially started.

She looked around and breathed a tiny sigh of relief when she could see Belle swiftly walking through the door followed by Tink and Neal. As soon as Belle was close enough, Ruby pulled her into a one-armed hug. "What is he doing here?" she whispered softly, trying hard not to inhale Belle's beautiful scent.

"Helping us," Belle replied, wiggling herself out of the hug. Ruby wondered why she was looking slightly uncomfortable but before she could ask if anything was wrong, Belle leaned closer again. "Can we talk after this is all over?"

Ruby swallowed. Those words, combined with Belle's behavior didn't promise anything good, but she put on her big-girl face and nodded. "Sure." It came out high and squeaky, and she hated herself for it. "What about?"

The door banged open and Snow strolled in purposefully, wearing a long white dress, looking every bit the queen. In fact, apart from the color of the dress, quite a people were reminded of the Evil Queen at the height of her reign. Three steps behind her was Blue, who kept her hands hidden in the folds of a long cloak.

David's eyes burned at the sight of his wife. He needed her back. He missed her so much it was eating him from the inside out. It was almost as if Snow had died but this was even worse because she was still walking around, pretending nothing had changed and everything was in order. He shook himself out of it when he saw Tink walking his way. "Did you find anything?"

Tink shook her head. "We turned Rumple's place upside down but we couldn't find anything that might help us."

David spotted Neal over her shoulder. "What is Neal doing here?"

"He helped, … although it took some convincing," Tink replied, dismissing him from her thoughts immediately. "Do you know what the plan is?"

David nodded as he remembered the short phone call with Emma a couple of hours ago, and he filled Tink in. "As soon as Emma manages to draw Snow away from Blue, we should make our move, so it would be good if a few of us got as close to Blue as we can," he finished.

"I'll let the others know."

o o o

Snow called the meeting to order from the front of the room. She shared a look with Blue who was standing off to the side, then took a deep breath. "People of Storybrooke," she began, her voice strong and ringing out over the crowd. "Welcome to our town meeting. As you all know we have come together today to elect a new mayor."

The crowd began to mutter, and Ruby's ears picked up the first murmurs of discontent, but so far nobody said anything loud enough for Snow to hear.

Tink and Belle both watched the way Blue's eyes scanned the crowd, possibly for dissenters, when they weren't glued to Snow. The two women nodded at each other, then split and moved through the crowd to try and get behind Blue from two sides, hoping that their presence wouldn't be noted straight away.

Snow held up her hand to quiet the crowd. "Regina is no longer our mayor, so it is time to let the rightful ruler take the position and we're here ton—"

The door flew open with such force that both sides crashed into the walls left and right, making people jump where they stood or sat. "Let me stop you right there, Mom," Emma called out loud and clear, Henry by her side, head held high, shoulders back, just like his mother. "Because that's not how elections work in this country."

There was timid applause from one corner of the room, which grew until the majority of people had joined in.

Belle smiled, and so did Ruby.

Snow smiled magnanimously at her daughter and grandson while waiting until the applause had died down. "Emma, honey," she said. "So nice of you to join us." She took a few steps in her daughter's direction. "I know you said you wanted an election but we both know that this won't be necessary now, don't we?"

Emma forced herself to remain quiet and not scream at the woman who had used her son to shoot her true love, but she had to keep herself from wincing from how hard Henry's fingers dug into her hand. We should have left him at the cabin, she mused, even though she knew it would have been futile. He was her son, he would have found a way to witness this one way or another. For now she needed to stay focused, needed to try and solve all this so her mother could come back from that abyss she was currently in.

"What was that thing you once said?" Snow stopped in the center of the room and turned once around her own axis. "The queen is dead, long live the queen?" She smiled brightly. "Isn't that just wonderful?"

The room went silent as a tomb as everyone's eyes swiveled to Emma and Henry.