Chapter 13: One by One
Emma pulls in behind the loft having sped across town as fast as her bug could carry her. She slams open the door and runs towards her parent's room, except she slips and falls flat on her back.
"Are you okay?" Crystal asks, going over to help her up. Rumpel's daughter still holds onto the Saviour's baby brother, who the blonde could see was trying to fall asleep.
"I'm fine," she says, standing up again.
"I should've warned you about the ice,"
"I'm fine now where are Mom and Dad?"
Emma pushes past her friend and looks where one might expect her parents to be resting, except the entire room was cold; frost covered the hardwood floor and even appeared on Neal's crib. Her father's sword lay on the floor soaking wet and his gun is by the doorway.
"Where the hell could they be?" Emma hisses, her heart pounding anxiously.
"I don't really know, I've searched the entire loft and even tried their cell phones. Something is very wrong Emma."
"I noticed."
"I'm glad I listened to my instinct, someone who was supposed to be your mom dropped Neo in my arms."
"Wait what do you mean supposed to be?"
"I don't think it was Snow who gave me Neal. I think it was someone posing as your mother to dump the baby off."
"Who though?"
"I bet you ten bucks you can't guess. Her skin was ice cold."
"Ingrid!" Emma hisses angrily and clenches her fists. Immediately, a lightbulb above the two of them explodes in a shower of sparks and glass. Neal wakes up and starts crying in alarm.
"Control Emma, we talked about this," Crystal scolds her, trying to settle the infant down again. The Dark One's daughter uses her powers to repair the damage. "If it was Snow Cone Queen, where's the real Snow?"
Emma is fighting back tears of great distress. "That bitch is going to pay dearly. She messed with the wrong family. She won't take what matters most to me…"
Something suddenly clicks in Crystal's mind, remembering her own confrontation with the Ice Queen. "Oh my God…" the girl immediately fishes her phone out of her pocket. She frantically tries to dial a number with the screaming infant still in her arms.
"What?!" Emma asks, very alarmed by her friend's shift in mood.
"When was the last time you saw Henry?"
"A couple hours ago why?"
"Is Regina with him?"
"She should be…" Emma answers, getting increasingly frustrated with every passing moment because of the lack of explanation.
Crystal turns her attention back to her phone, finally putting Neal down in his baby carrier, not able to multi-task at the moment. She gives the little one a pacifier and this settles him enough for her to make her call in peace. She paces back and forth anxiously. "Come on, come on Regina pick up." she hisses; the lights in the loft flickering more intensely as both sorceress' magic is going haywire with their strained emotions.
"CRYSTAL WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" Emma shouts, causing another light bulb to explode. The Saviour puts her hand on Crystal's shoulder to stop her frantic pacing.
"T-The Snow Queen, when she found me in the forest, she told me that you would want to join her family when no one is left…"
"WHAT? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I kind of forgot that she said it because there was a giant ice dragon trying to kill me and destroy the town."
Emma is now crying desperately and frantically running her hands through her hair.
"She wants you to join her demented family willingly so that would mean…"
The blonde grabs Crystal's phone and immediately dials Henry's number.
"You have reached the voice mailbox of… Henry Mills."
The Saviour hurtles the phone across the room and it smashes against the wall. Although most people would be distressed by the destruction of their device, Crystal was as frantic, if not more so and didn't care in the least.
"When was the last time you saw Hook?" she asks. The fear growing within her, Ingrid wouldn't even have to worry about killing Killian as her father was half-way there already.
"Get in the car!" Emma says, still not thinking completely straight. "We have to find Regina and Henry before…"
They don't even have to finish the sentence as both women are out the door with the baby in tow running for the Evil Queen's house.
…
Meanwhile, Regina, Robin, Elsa, and Henry are searching through a stack of the former Evil Queen's spell books, still searching for a cure for Marian. They sit in the library pouring over anything they can find about ice magic. Belle had left them the key to lock up as she when home to her husband. The four of them were growing tired of reading about old myths and lore of yetis and mountain monsters, nothing at all useful.
"You'd think Grandpa would've taught you something about ice magic when he tutored you," Henry groans, bringing another heavy load of books to the table.
"He always was more interested in the Dark Arts," Regina muttered, turning a page of the book.
"I just wish I could do more to help," Elsa sighs heavily as well. She's examining a volume on the Rock Trolls, see if they had anything useful. "An act of true love saved Anna before, so why didn't work for you, Sir Hood?"
Robin swallows heavily and gives a sideways glance at Regina, who does her best to not blush. She keeps her eyes on the aged page which had ancient runes printed all over it.
"It… it might be stronger than we anticipated," he says quickly. "It might take more than true love this time."
"That might be true, she might be using dark magic as well," Elsa nods, not really catching on to the implication that Robin may not love Marian anymore.
Henry sits in the corner and puts his headphones in before picking up a large, dusty book. Secretly, he slipped a comic book behind the volume and began reading that instead. He knew he should be helping, but he already reads enough in school and he needs a break.
"Are these all your spell books Regina?" Robin asks, adding another to the pile.
"I don't think so. I might've kept a few back in my vault. I'll be right back."
Then the dark-haired sorceress teleports herself into the dark confines of her vault. She glances sideways once to where she and Robin had spent the night together not long ago. Even though the guilt was eating away at her, for Marian being incapacitated, she still felt very satisfied and happy. She'd been miserable all her life and to finally be intimate with someone she truly loved, it wasn't hard to feel gratified for it. She assumes that there was still a bit of the Evil Queen inside of her, pleased for having the dashing outlaw to herself.
She begins searching through some of the books on her shelves when she suddenly senses that something is off. The temperature has dropped significantly, even for her vault. She turns around but doesn't see anything.
Maybe some of Elsa's magic followed me here, she thought.
Grabbing the remainder of her spell books, Regina waves her hand in the air, planning to go back to the library except nothing happens.
She tries again and still nothing. She tries to conjure up a fireball, but nothing appears in the palm of her hand.
Very concerned, but not panicking, she rushes to the door of her vault, only to find the door completely covered with a thick layer of ice.
"What the hell?" she gasps. She tries her magic again but still, nothing happens. Something is very wrong, her magic has been neutralized and apparently, the Ice Queen has found her, now trying to seal her in.
Dropping the armful of books, she finds a nearby sword and tries to hack at the ice surrounding the exit. It doesn't do anything, except cause the sword to shatter like a piece glass. Regina chucks a heavy stone and the stone falls to pieces. With her heart pounding Regina can see through a faint window that her entire vault has been covered with a thick sheet of ice. The former Evil Queen shivers slightly and immediately tries to find something to make fire with. While doing so, she tries to keep a level head, trying to call Robin or someone on their cell phone. She is afraid that Henry is now in danger as well.
"Damn!" she hisses when there's no reception. She notices the cloud of mist as she breathes out. She pulls her black coat tighter around herself. She won't last more than a few hours in this tomb in the freezing temperatures
She begins tearing through the shelves, looking for anything to try and thaw her frozen situation.
…
"What could be keeping her so long?" Robin wonders. He stares out the window of the library even though she was more likely to materialize inside.
"Maybe she found something and is trying to make it," Henry suggests.
"Maybe," the outlaw sighs. Suddenly, frost patterns slowly appear on the window pane. He takes a step back.
"Queen Elsa…" he says nervously.
"Yes…"
"Are you by any chance creating frost?"
"N-No…"
"No, but I am," a voice calls out. Ingrid appears in the center of the room. Elsa immediately gets up and attempts to defend the two men from her aunt. However, her relative is too quick for her.
"I was going to save this for later, but now is a good time…" the wicked woman smiles.
Something suddenly snakes around Elsa's wrist and ties itself in a bow. It's a yellow ribbon. Undeterred, the Queen of Arendelle still tries to attack, but nothing happens.
"What did you do to her?" Henry shouts, standing up and very afraid. He wishes he had some kind of weapon or power of his own.
"Nothing to worry about, she just can't use her powers to hurt me, or anyone else."
"But I can still hurt you, you witch!" the outlaw says angrily. Robin grabs the dagger he always keeps on his belt and throws it at the cold-hearted villain.
Without a second thought, the Snow Queen deflects it and then throws the archer against the wall. He finds himself unable to move as a thick layer of ice, similar to the one that entrapped Regina in her vault, has him pinned to the wall. He struggles in a desperate attempt to help Elsa and Henry.
"Poor hero," Ingrid scoffs. "Doesn't know when he's beaten."
"He'll die if you leave him like that!" Elsa says, preparing to physically fight her aunt if she had to.
"No, he won't. It'll only be temporary and by the time Emma gets here, we'll be long gone to join the others."
"We…" Henry begins before a cold gust of wind cuts off his words. Robin Hood watches in horror as the three figures vanish in a cloud of snow.
"NO!" he shouts, struggling with all his strength to get free. He prayed that Regina would come back soon, or Emma because things just got a whole lot worse for the heroes.