Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. This was supposed to be one long chapter but it got too much and i've decided to split it into two chapters and extend the third season arc.
Some part of this chapter has events from different episodes that are flipped around, but seeing as most of this story is AU...
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
The Summit Of My Desires.
Chapter 21-Swift, Silent, Deadly
Elsa fights to regain control of both her sanity and her magic as her mind wanders, Zelena moves her plan into action as Regina scrambles to stop her, the curse is broken leading to the returning of some unpleasant memories and some hard and harsh truths are shared between Emma and Liam as tempers begin to fray in the aftermath of Neal's death. Part One of a Two Part Chapters. Some changes in events between episodes (episodes flipped around)
Storybrooke. After The Missing Year.
She awoke to the sound of dripping ice. Somewhere, sometime, at some point in the night she must have frozen the ceiling again. They had been moved from the farmhouse to a barn in the middle of nowhere off the side of the house she was sure (if Elsa could be sure of anything anymore) and her magic which had been locked away so strongly was coming back in ebbs and flows and Elsa who had worked so hard to get the damn thing under control and now it was gone, all the hard work, all the control, all the feeling that came with her magic gone and here she was trapped unable to do anything.
Whenever she voiced those opinions out loud either Zelena or Gold would say something. Zelena was full of mocking promising that real practitioners of magic had never needed control, they just simply did. Gold when he heard that had snorted out loud and said very coldly that Zelena was talking out of her hat as usual and that it was only a very basic beginner that didn't continue to try and push the boundaries a little bit further each and every time.
That had gotten him a whack with his own dagger and Elsa had ripped off a bit of her top and had helped him wipe away most of the blood while he gnashed his teeth. Knowing the Dark One as she did, she could not imagine a way that Zelena would keep it. And once he had the dagger she could see no reason why Zelena would keep her head.
She had mentioned that to Gold and he had looked at her with that shadowy look he had and then mentioned very quietly that he had always liked her.
They had over the course off—well who knew how long they had been here together—developed something of a relationship. Elsa wasn't sure if they were friends but they were certainly cordial and she had a feeling that if they ever did escape out of this place then they were going to remain civil for a very long time. Some things you simply couldn't do without civility and going to the bathroom in front of each other was one of them.
The days blurred together. Not even Gold knew what was going on, why they were here or about the things that Zelena was going to do to them but she was willing to bet it wasn't going to be pleasant. She willed away time staring at the ceiling and as she did she could feel her sanity, her magic and all that made her, her was slipping away.
It was the little things, things that she remembered from an eternity in that urn. She had remembered being trapped and the constant feeling of pressure of being kept in a place. Of controlling your freedom and your mind and trying to keep yourself sane. That had been before she'd had something to think about, all that had plagued her once before was the shock and the horror growing to anger at her sister for trapping her in that hell hole in the first place.
And now she didn't even have that emotion to keep her grounded.
But as time passed (as it inevitably did) she found that she was staring at the ceiling, seeing but not seeing her sister. As the days got more and more long and the nights got colder she found that she was thinking more and more about her family. She was thinking of her mother and her father and her sister. Anna especially. It seemed strange that after all of these years she was now thinking of the sister she had loved and lost. She thought of the red braids and the blue dress and Kristoff and his damn deer. She thought of her mother and her father and found that for once she was not thinking of the way that they had looked at her when she'd had one of her spells of uncontrollable magic but when they had been parents first and monarchs second. Granted those memories were few and far between but she remembered being pulled onto her father's lap and her mother doing her hair at night and the smell of her powder as she bent down to kiss her goodnight. The stupid, little things that she had forgotten. Even now when she was thinking of her sister she remembered them playing as little children, she remembered the look of happiness etched upon her face when she had told Elsa that Kristoff was the one for her and that proud look on what would have been her brother-in-law's face when she had accepted his proposal.
She missed them she realised at some point when Gold had been gone (he was often gone with the Witch for long periods of time). She missed them, they had hurt her, betrayed her, neglected her and had made it clear that they were afraid of her and yet despite it all she missed them. She had learnt the hard way that magic was not the eternal curse that she had thought it would be and now she wished she could tell them that. So much had been wasted and now she was looking back and realising that the black and white picture she had created was about as solid as the icicles she kept forming.
And above all Elsa wished for Liam. She tried not to think about it because it was like a constant pain when she did. She tried to appear aloof and uninterested and show no weakness but she wanted him here, his arms around her protecting her from it all. She wanted to burrow under his skin and let him take her and forget all about the outside world. She did not think that he had abandoned her or took up with someone else in her absence, she went with her heart not her head, not the pitter pattering of her past and for once she had the sense to trust.
When this was over, if she was still alive (and Elsa did not hold out much hope of that happening) then she would marry him. Even if she had to do the asking—forgive her she was a romantic—and she would be happy. Come hell or high water she would have the normal life she had so desperately craved and when this was over she would reach out to her sister to see if she too got the happy ending she so desperately wanted but had seemed forever out of reach.
One day Gold came back looking like he had aged decades in the day he had been gone. That was how she had known that Neal was dead. Elsa had moved so that she was closer to the wire that connected their cages but kept them separate and when Zelena was gone she reached out and touched Gold's hand the only place her finger could reach. He did not react but she thought that it might give him some comfort all the same. There was a sense after all that come what may, they were in this together.
Burying Neal hadn't been painful for Liam in the slightest. It had been for Killian he knew and if he was being honest that and the free booze had been the only reason for Liam to turn up. He suspected that made him a horrible person but he was far beyond guilt anymore. Neal had been with them on Neverland but other than that he had been one more complication in Liam's life. He had opened the portal, had a girlfriend who had enacted the failsafe in the curse, had caused pain for his little brother and had (from what Liam could gather from Killian's uncursed memories) done nothing to help them fight the Witch in the missing year.
So all in all he was not what one would call the chief mourner at the funeral. He was quite prepared to sit in silence with his beer and think of ways to find Elsa. The farm house was achingly empty still, and the Charming's had not held one of their meetings since Neal's death which if Liam was being unkind (and with Elsa's life on the line he suspected he was) that was just piss poor management.
Killian took command of Henry and Emma took that moment to sit down in front of him. Liam looked at her. In another life with their colouring and their magic he supposed she and Elsa could have been sisters but their personalities were nothing alike he thought darkly.
"Are you thinking about Elsa?"
She was being kind he knew but it was with great difficulty that he refrained from rolling his eyes.
"I'm always thinking about Elsa. Do we have any plan on finding her?"
"I am going to stop the Witch" Emma said her face growing dark and Liam suddenly understood what her parents had been whispering about so fanatically and he could have laughed.
"Not what I asked Emma" he said shaking his head "I asked if—" but he was cut off as the door to the dinner was slammed open and then as if she had been waiting for her entrance and clutching the Dark One's dagger in her gloved hand was Zelena herself.
Liam stood up as did everyone else and he cursed himself for leaving his gun in his car.
He had to give it to her thought, she knew how to make one hell of an entrance.
"Oh sorry" she said with such false sincerity that it wouldn't have fooled a confused newcomer.
"Did I miss the speeches?"
Emma snarled her parents grabbing her. Personally Liam would have preferred to see the two of them go head to head but he was suddenly aware that he was standing between Regina and Robin Hood and that Regina was looking positively murderous with a smile that would have stopped even the most determined of fireballs mid path.
Zelena started talking about the Dark One, about happy days and coming for Regina. Liam listened aware that this was a copy of most speeches the villains seemed to give in this place but there were parts that stood out for him.
For one she said she was Regina's sister. One look at Regina told everyone in the town this was complete news to her and then she seemed to be staking a claim as the big bad bitch of this town. In Liam's humble opinion that was a very stupid thing to do. Regina Mills had forged a legacy of pain, suffering and sarcasm in her time both as Queen, Mayor and mother and Liam suspected that nobody was getting that title of the Evil Queen without a fight.
But that didn't change the fact that his questions were going unanswered and this woman…this witch…standing in front of him with her red hair and her ear shattering laugh was the only one who could answer them.
"Why do you need Elsa?" he asked. Zelena dithered on the edge of the door and when she turned around her gaze was penetrating. She was looking at Liam as if she had never seen him before and Liam with a swoop of his stomach wondered weather or not he had given her a weapon that she could use against the woman that he so desperately wanted to make his wife.
Damn he couldn't even remember if he'd asked her.
"Well dear Sailor" Zelena said with a terrible drawl forcing his attention back in front of him.
"I need the Dark One, I will use the Dark One, but in all honesty I suppose one needs a back up plan. And your Ice Queen does protest so prettily"
Liam snapped.
Robin Hood caught him around the waist and David was there pulling back his shoulders but Liam knew it took their combined efforts to keep him from killing her.
"Your dead" he swore at her his eyes meeting hers so that she knew he was serious.
"Your fucking dead!"
But Zelena was already gone.
It was Robin Hood who got him home. Robin Hood who pulled him into his apartment, poured him a drink and sat with him until Killian a small smile on his face came home. His brother took one look at him and seemed to know in that contradictory way of brothers that something was wrong. Robin had gone straight for the scotch and had told Killian who had gripped his shoulder.
"Aye Liam. She's a strong woman. If there's anyone a match for Zelena it's Elsa"
"And tonight if anyone can take on the Wicked Witch it's the Queen"
That was Robin and it pulled Liam from his thoughts in time to remember that Regina was supposed to take on her half sister at nightfall and that was enough to have the three men downing their drinks and running towards Main Street just in time to see Regina fly through the air, smash into a car and then rebound as if it was nothing.
If Liam had not held admiration for the woman he realised it had doubled right now.
Gold was there looking drained, he looked battered and blue and exhausted and his eyes were on Belle who stared back at with an increasing desperation but at the same time such tenderness that he had to look away gritting his teeth together. Liam felt bile rise in his throat. If Gold could look like that, if the Dark One, the most feared man in the Enchanted Forest for centuries could look like that because of this woman standing in front of him then he dared not think about what Elsa would look like. After all what had Zelena said she was—a back up plan.
He had to force himself to focus on what was in front of him but he watched as Zelena threw Regina through the window of the clock tower sped after her on a broomstick ('cliché' David muttered) before less than two minutes later she was gone again and as David, Snow (to some extent), Emma, Killian and Liam raced up the stairs it was to find Regina massaging her chest with a rather savage expression on her face.
And that was how they found out that Zelena was creating a spell.
It was the strangest séance Killian had ever been too. Actually he had not been to much unless you counted that night with the tavern girls where after several flagons of rum they had attempted to contact the long lost Sea Queen with a bit of wood.
When he had mentioned this Liam had looked at him with an expression of utter exasperation and Killian despite the very difficult circumstances that they were in had grinned. It was nice to see something other than blankness on Liam's face these days.
Killian was no fool (despite what he had been told) he had known that his brother was in love with Elsa. Knew that one day he would be calling her sister (and really he could not wish for a better one), knew that she would be a part of his life and that Liam would be happy.
Well as happy as he could be. Killian knew that nightmares would plague his brother for the rest of his life, that the poison that had seeped through his veins would haunt him for the rest of his days on this world. Pan's magic was twisted and dark and complicated. But within Elsa, the Happy Ending seemed possible. With her it seemed possible. And Killian wanted that for Liam even if Liam seemed to not want it for himself. His older brother deserved happiness. He deserved peace. God knows he was the better brother out of the two of them.
The séance continued, disappeared and then came back in a vengeance. Cora had never been what one would call a pleasant lass to deal with and it appeared her younger self was much the same. And then the story came out.
And it was not good.
Even by Killian's dim, dim view of the average hero this was not good.
And the consequences were too dastardly to even consider.
For Swan. For Liam. For Elsa and for the hope of happiness he had kindled within himself that he was rapidly learning was swifter, more silent and perhaps more deadly than anything at all. Even a Wicked Witch.
And there you are, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I will try and bring the next one to you as soon as I have written it.
Next Chapter-Elsa struggles to escape, Liam and Emma come to blows as the curse is broken, a baby is born and the Wicked Witch stakes her last fight as things come to a final head. Part Two of a Two Part Chapter Arc.