Chapter 13: Siblings? And slave?

Neverland

Daniel and Fiona were staring at the photograph for a few seconds in silence after Daniel had basically dropped a massive bomb on Fiona about who the blonde woman in the photo was.

"What are you talking about, Daniel? You have been nagging everyone about how your mother has brown hair and dark eyes and tan skin, AND apparently she's the evil queen. My mother is the complete opposite of that description," Fiona told him with a frown as she moved the photo away from him. She was starting to think this boy was just downright crazy and this whole story about mothers is probably him mourning the fact he was abandoned or something.

"I know what I said, but I have two moms! Where I am from there's a bunch of other kids with two moms or two dads, and that lady in the photo is my mom! I lived with her my whole life," he tried to explain to her in a way that would be more believable, because he felt by now this is a whole different world or different country, since everyone here is so different from the reality he knows.

"So you are telling me she raised you after abandoning me?" Fiona almost spat that out, because if what Daniel said was true then that meant her mother abandoned her but decided to raise her second child. Wasn't she also worthy enough to keep?

"No! My mom would never abandon anybody!" Daniel puffed out his cheeks in anger as he clenched his small fists. "Maybe she doesn't know you exist? Like my other mom, I went to find her in another town and she didn't know I existed! And in my mom's diary she wrote about me like I was some secret to the other mom. Maybe you were kept secret from her?" His small brain was just trying to make sense of it all because he knew his blonde mother would never abandon one of her children, she was the best mother in the world, she always worked hard and still found the time to play with him. So, for Daniel, the only thing that made sense was that his mother probably didn't even know Fiona existed.

"How can you birth a child and not know?" Fiona frowned her eyes at him and from his confused expression she figured this should be another conversation for later on in his life. "Listen, maybe you are just confused."

"I'm not confused! Look at me! People say I look like her!" He was getting a bit frustrated that Fiona didn't believe him, so he just stared as hard as he could into her eyes.

Fiona sighed out and decided to play along. She looked at Daniel and the photo, back and forth, a couple of times and she could see a resemblance. "Well, you are both blonde and got the same chin, but your eyes are brown though."

"Yes, cause my other mom has brown eyes! It all makes sense," Daniel nodded, confident in himself, but he could see Fiona was still doubting him, "look, look when I smile, it's the same!" he pulled the biggest grin he could to match the smile on the photo and Fiona looked back and forth again and she could admit it was the same smile, the only difference is that Daniel had plump lips.

"Okay, say I believe you, yea? Where could we find her then?"

"I don't know..." Daniel pouted, starting to miss his blonde mother a lot, "I think I time travel or something because I was in my school's toilet and I just wished really hard to meet my other mom and once I opened my eyes I was in the forest!"

"You time-what?" Fiona looked at him confused, this little boy was really losing it all. "Forget about it, Daniel. Your stories sound crazier and crazier, maybe you are spending too much time in the sun."

"I'm not crazy!" Daniel almost shouted as tears formed in his eyes. He was starting to get very overwhelmed with the emotions of missing his mom and Fiona not believing him.

"Just let it go, Daniel. Go to sleep, I want to leave bright and early tomorrow to warn the others about the Evil Queen being on the island."

"No, you can't tell them!" Daniel skipped towards Fiona and grabbed her arm as he sobbed. "They will hurt her! She is not evil, why don't you believe me?" Daniel was now full on crying and Fiona just stared at him weirdly, not knowing how to handle a child having a meltdown. "I promise you she is not evil!"

"Daniel, stop," Fiona was getting annoyed, but Daniel was getting into a proper meltdown, so she figured being her usual mean self right now wouldn't help. She got on one knee and just hugged the younger boy while stroking his back. "Calm down, will you? I'm only trying to keep you safe. Maybe your other mother looks a bit like the Evil Queen and you are just confused."

"I'm not confused!" Daniel cried into Fiona's neck as he wrapped his arms around her. "She hugged me, you saw it too. She is nice!"

Fiona just tried her best to calm him down by simply holding him but his words kind of made sense to her because the Evil Queen had hugged Daniel and she seemed incredibly relieved to see the younger boy, and maybe some type of motherly love in her touch. "Yea, I saw," she just agreed with him because she didn't want to make it worse.

"And you hurt her! You are the evil one!" Daniel hit his small fists on her back as he hugged her, but Fiona let him be. She knew he was just letting his frustration out and he didn't really mean it.

After a few more minutes of this meltdown, Daniel finally calmed himself down and he was getting sleepy. He removed himself from her embrace and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he figured he had to apologise for what he said.

"That's alright," Fiona just stared at him, not much emotion on her face, she was back to the usual expressionless because she was deep in her thoughts about all this. If what Daniel said was true, could it mean they were siblings? Only her, well, their, mother could clarify that. "You don't really know how to find her?" She showed him the photo again.

"N-no," he sniffed with a pout as he stared at the photo and then an idea occurred to him. "But maybe my other mom knows!" He tried to sound excited through his exhaustion from the meltdown.

"We are not doing this again, Daniel," Fiona sighed as she stood up and started to prepare the makeshift bed.

"Please? Give her a chance! I promise you, she is good and she can help. She knows mom," he said as he stood up and walked after Fiona.

"Listen, I will think about it, let's just rest for now," Fiona couldn't handle another meltdown and the events of the day were catching up on her. She was exhausted.

Daniel nodded and hummed happily as he got on top of the makeshift bed with Fiona. It was big enough for them to be able to lay on it together. After a couple of minutes of silence and when Fiona was right about to fall asleep, Daniel decided to interrupt her sleep with a question.

"Hey Fiona, you awake?"

"Barely, what is it?"

"Does this mean you are my sister?" He asked a bit shyly and his response was a long silence from Fiona before she sighed out.

"Maybe Dani, maybe we are siblings."

"That's so cool, I always wanted a sister," he said happily as he snuggled up to her side. Fiona was a bit taken back by his sudden touch but she just let it be, she was too tired to fight back. "Mhm," it was all she managed to mutter before finally falling asleep alongside the young child.

Evil Queen's Castle

A ray of sunshine creeped through the long dark curtains of the tallest tower of the castle, into a dark and cold room that seemed to be a very personal room for the Evil Queen, but right now, was a makeshift dungeon cell for Emma. – Eventually during the night, couple knights came in and removed the chains from her so she didn't have to be with her arms spread apart. They allowed her to stay only with a chain collar, that was rather quite soft to the touch and definitely screamed Evil Queen accessories, but thankfully to this changes, Emma managed to have some sleep during the night, the pain was still there but becoming more bearable. She still couldn't use her magic, she figured the collar was also enchanted.

Emma groaned once that ray of sunshine hit her eyes, stirring her awake. Once she rolled over, she almost screamed in pain, completely forgetting how her back was probably still left in a bloodbath full of bruises and open wounds from the whip. "Fuck me," she muttered under her breath, slowly raising herself in a sitting position and wincing in pain at every move. Eventually, she decided to basically crawl her way towards one of the windows and raise herself to stand by the help of the walls. That's when she noticed how tall the room she was in was. – She had no idea how she was going to escape this. Jumping out of the window is completely out of the question now. She would never be able to find anything long enough to get her out of here if she even broke through the chains, which seemed impossible, but she was going to try anyway.

Emma started to look through the room, trying to find anything she could use that was hard enough to hit the chains. That's when she realizes how the room had so much personal touch. There were books everywhere, a couch, a desk filled with papers and personal belongings, even small flasks of potions and a treasure chest. Every shelf had small decor that wasn't too much and they all seemed to have a purpose. Could this be Regina's office but the castle version? – She started to slowly walk around, hurting with every step, but curiosity was taking the best of her, before she knew, she was looking through papers and some books, completely forgetting for a moment to find something to break herself from the chains.

"It's always satisfying when a slave is up and early, but irritating when they are too curious for their own good." The Evil Queen's voice sounded from behind Emma, which made the blonde woman freeze on her spot. She didn't even hear the brunette come in, because she used her magic to simply show up, wondering if she would catch Emma doing something she shouldn't and she did. "Don't touch anything unless I tell you too," she clicked her tongue and with a flick of her wrist, the book closed in Emma's hand and flew right back to its place on the shelf.

Emma gasped when the book closed but then started to calm her nerves down. Part of her was very scared the brunette was here to torture her once more, but another part of her was still the old typical Emma that liked to defy authorities, specially unfair ones. – She took a deep breath and turned around to face the Evil Queen, with a determined frown, but at the sight of such elegant beauty she gulped, feeling how dry her throat is. "I'm not your slave," Emma managed to say, not letting her eyes wander too much through the other woman's figure.

"Oh I don't think you have much choice in that matter, do you dear?" The Evil Queen sounded rather amused at how bold Emma was, especially after last night.

"I refuse to be your slave," Emma stood firm.

The brunette frowned at such stubbornness and took a few strong graceful steps forward. "Don't disrespect your Queen," she almost spat out while grabbing Emma's chin. "Either you remain my prisoner and I torture for however long I see fit, or..." she traced her fingernails across Emma's jawline "...you become useful and that should cut you down on less hours of torture, something you would appreciate, don't you agree?"

Emma gulped as she felt the other woman's touch around her face. Her emotions were betraying her because she wanted to lean into that familiar touch. "So all I will win out of becoming your slave is to still be tortured but for less time?" She kept her frown, trying to remain strong and not show any weakness.

"Correct and that sounds like a good deal to me, dear," the evil queen said, content, while removing her hand away from Emma's face. Touching that fair skin seemed to feel so familiar to her but at the same time so unknown.

"No, thank you, I'd rather be tortured than to serve you," Emma said as coldly as she could as she turned around and walked away, dragging her feet along and, eventually, her legs gave in and she dropped on her knees but she just remained there, with her back faced to the brunette, figuring more whipping was about to come.

"W-What?" The Evil Queen was rather shocked that that was Emma's response. Anyone would've begged to stop the torturing and just agree to become her slave. Some would even feel lucky that they became her slave instead of a prisoner, but Emma simply opted to keep suffering? "You are quite a strange creature. I thought you'd be begging me not to torture you."

"I don't beg, your majesty," Emma said, looking over her shoulder. Was that a challenge?

"You will beg, especially when you come face to face with death," the evil queen said with a disapproval frown, but she remained in her position. Emma's boldness was something new to her, nobody really confronted her like this and those who ever tried never had the chance to go further before dying at her hands.

"I know you won't kill me," Emma said in a rather soft tone and a tiny smile. She strongly believed Regina would never kill her, because if a tiny bit of the woman she loved was still left within the evil queen, Emma would never die at her hands. But suffer? Most definitely.

"How can you be so sure?" The brunette asked, finally deciding to approach the blonde woman, standing in front of her.

Emma looked up at her brown eyes and showed her a small smile. "Call it a gut feeling," she shrugged and looked down at her hands that had residues of dried blood.

The Evil Queen was getting slightly irritated by this attitude, and despite the entire situation, Emma didn't seem to be so bothered and was ready to go through more torturing, but the events from last night still played in Queen's mind and she wanted to know who this woman was. She also had weird dreams last night. Usually her dreams are filled with her hatred for Snow White or memories of her true love Daniel, but for some reason, those Daniel's memories were replaced with a woman's figure? The memory was the exact same but she couldn't see the woman's face, just her figure and blonde locks and small scars on her chest when the dream got a bit too heated. "Strip," she ordered.

Emma blinked twice, taken back by the order. "Sorry?"

"I said strip, I don't like to repeat myself, slave."

Emma frowned at that. "I told you, I'm not your slave. I'd rather remain your prisoner."

The Evil Queen clicked her tongue in annoyance and with a snap of her fingers, Emma's clothes were gone, only her underwear stayed. The blonde woman gasped and tried to cover herself as much as she could with her own hands. "Move your hands," she ordered once more while getting on one of her knees to look better at the blonde's figure.

Emma was filled with embarrassment. She never expected to be naked in front of Regina ever again, especially not in these conditions, and now she was getting a bit self-conscious of how different her body is after eight years and having a child. "W-Why?"

"I will make sure you lose that habit of not obeying my orders right away," it was all she said with her regal tone as she grabbed Emma's wrists and removed her hands. The blonde reluctantly obliged, feeling extremely exposed as brown eyes scanned over her naked body. The Evil Queen was looking for those scars she saw in her dream and she found the exact same ones. She even moved one of Emma's blonde locks to pay on top of her chest, remembering the dream very vividly which sent her a pleasant shiver throughout her body. "Are you now ready to tell me who you are?" She said, moving her hands away and standing up.

Emma was very confused about what had just happened and blushing furiously. At least the brunette was still as unpredictable as she remembers. "I told you...I can't," she mumbled shyly, she really wanted her clothes back now.

"You are absolutely insufferable," the evil queen said, annoyed as she walked around Emma, summoning the whip in her hand with her magic. "Maybe this will get you tal-" before she could finish her sentence, her eyes caught sight of how horrible Emma's back looked. Such a sight shouldn't disturb her, she has seen worse and created worse, but for some reason, seeing these wounds on the blonde's back pulled a few strings in her cold dark heart. Why part of her felt sorry for the other woman and wanted nothing more than to heal her?

Emma shut her eyes tightly while embracing herself, getting ready for a strike...but nothing came. She figured she was making her wait on purpose but the seconds were dragging and nothing was happening, so Emma dared herself to look over her shoulder and look at the brunette and that's when she noticed how torn her expression seemed. Was she feeling remorse for what she did?

After a few seconds, the Evil Queen snapped out of it once brown eyes landed on green eyes that seemed so gentle. "I don't think you'll learn either way, since you are so into keep getting tortured," it was all she could make up to be the least believable because she wasn't going to admit that she didn't want to continue to hurt Emma, that in fact she wanted to help her. "Become my slave, I will give you more privileges than the others. You will be treated differently, with more care, no torture."

Emma's jaw dropped slightly at the queen's words. She said the word care with a different tone, didn't she? What exactly did she mean by that? But the no-torturing part seemed quite appealing. As brave as she sounded awhile ago, she was dreading to get beaten up again, and she didn't know how many more sessions of it she could put up with. "W-what privileges?" She cleared her throat, it was very dry.

The Evil Queen smirked at how now the other woman seemed to be clearly considering her options. "Becoming my personal slave, that's the main privilege, of course," she walked around Emma again to look at her face. "You will always remain by my side unless I tell you otherwise. You won't have to worry about doing other castle duties other than the ones I personally order you to. All your duties will be very personal to your queen," she sounded very confident and regal, sending multiple shivers throughout Emma's spine. She missed that voice, that tone, it brought back pleasant memories, despite the situation she was in now. "So what do you say, pet?"

Emma looked embarrassed at her naked legs, thinking about her options. Maybe becoming the queen's slave wouldn't be such a bad idea because this way she could get closer to her, hopefully, more freedom from these walls and find a way to escape. She has to play along now while hoping the other Regina finds their son and saves him, even if she can't save herself, Daniel needs to get out of here. So she will do everything she can. "Fine, I accept."

"Wonderful!" She clapped her hands together, rather excited, but quickly calmed down after catching herself doing that. It was rather embarrassing for a Queen. "You can start by only addressing me as your majesty or my queen, or even mistress. But always and I mean always, pet," she bent herself slightly and pressed the handle of the whip under Emma's chin, bringing her face upwards. "Always address me with respect, or you'll be punished."

Emma looked up at her dark eyes and gulped at how serious she sounded. Those eyes seemed to be full of desire. Now, desire for Emma or to make her life miserable was the question. "Yes, your majesty," she managed to say while her voice betrayed her a little bit. She hoped this plan wouldn't backfire.

TBC