Chapter 2: Mother

"Good morning James, it is time to get up."

James woke to the sunlight beaming on his face, stretching his arms to the sky as he groaned. He sat up in bed, wiping his face with the palm of his hand to wake himself from sleep. He slid his legs to the side, feeling his toes touch the light carpet beneath the bed. Shaking his head, he stood from the bed. "Status report."

"It is currently 9am, pollution level 68%, you have no appointments today."

"Bloody hell." He groaned. "What happened to my 7am alarm?"

"You cancelled that alarm, James. Your alarm was set for 9am to begin work at 10am."

"I cancelled it…" He stood in the middle of his room. "When did I cancel the bloody alarm?"

"I show you cancelled the alarm at 1:30am and set a new alarm for 9am."

"What the bloody…" He didn't remember doing anything at 1:30 am. As far as he knew he had been sleeping. He sat down on the chair next to him, running a hand through his hair. He closed his eyes, trying to remember anything happening during the evening that would have caused him to reset his alarm. The longer he thought about it, the more his head hurt. He didn't need a migraine this morning, he was already late for work now.

He dressed quickly, exiting his apartment to head to the diner.

He was certain that Granny was going to fire him for being this late. When he stepped into the diner she shook her head and pointed to the kitchen.

"You need to get that alarm of yours fixed."

"Yes Ma'am. I'm going to call a repairman straight away."

"Get to work."

The rest of his shift went as usual, James stayed two hours after his shift to assist Granny with the late evening rush, feeling guilty about being late once again. Once the diner had died down, he gathered his coat and was headed to the door. A man sitting in a corner booth caught his attention. It wasn't that he recognized the man, not entirely, but he seemed familiar.

Something about him gave him a sense of Déjà vu. The headache blinded him as he tried to access the information, the man took notice of him as he grabbed ahold of the nearest bench, trying to steady himself.

"Oi, you look like you could use some help."

"I'm fine." He tried to brush him off, pushing the door to the diner open and stepping into the busy street. The man followed him, which annoyed James. "I said I'm fine."

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Mate."

He glanced at the man, narrowing his eyes, there was something about him. "I'm…" The headache blinded him again and he staggered to the edge of the diner, walking back toward his car, and reaching in his pocket for his inhibitor.

"I wouldn't take that." The man warned behind him.

"Who are you?" He asked angrily, tripping backwards against his car.

"I'm Will, we spoke the other day. I just want to talk to you about Emma."

James fell to his knees as it felt like pins and needles were attacking his body, he pulled the inhibitor toward his arm and the man reached down and grabbed at the injector. "Get away from me, what are you doing?"

"Killian, don't inject that."

The name shook him, pictures flashed in his brain, the blonde-haired woman from his dreams staring at him with emerald, green eyes, the name falling from her lips like it somehow belonged to him. Killian. He was losing his mind. He pressed the injector to his arm and pushed, a loud hiss emitting as the cool liquid entered his veins. He fell back against the car, exhaling with a groan.

"Dammit mate, I'm trying to help you."

"You stay away from me before I call the cops."

"Bloody hell…look, the more you inject that stuff, the more you forget. They messed with your brain, made you all foggy and shite." James stared at the man as if he had just grown two heads. "You keep getting headaches right? Things don't add up, and when you think about them, you get a headache."

"You're bloody crazy." He stood up, grabbing the door to his car and yanking it open. "Stay the hell away from me."

"Will Scarlet." He shouted before James shut the door.

"Will what?"

"My name, Will Scarlet. Write it down or something." He turned and left the alley, running in the opposite direction of the diner.

James shook his head, looking at his reflection in the rear-view mirror. Write it down.

He didn't need to write it down, did he? The man was a lunatic. But…he knew about the headaches; how did he know about them? How did he know that things were out of place?

He looked around the floor of his vintage car, trying to find anything to write with. People thought he was crazy for hanging onto a relic from the 1900's. It cost him a fortune to repair it. And somehow he knew how to fix everything on his Chevy Chevelle, but anytime he tried to remember how he knew, the headaches came.

He found a marker lying under the mat of the passenger side, grabbing it, he tried to find something to write on. With the absence of paper, he ripped the sleeve of his shirt up and scribbled against his flesh in black ink.

Will Scarlet

"It's not like him to be gone for this long without contacting me. Even if he were working on something, he would have mentioned it."

"Could the resistance have removed him from the playing field?" Mayor Mills asked from her place at her desk.

"Was he working on a case that had to do with the resistance?" David questioned.

David's new partner, Killian Jones had been missing for weeks now, no message, no contact, just gone. Killian had been quiet about his most recent case; he knew it had something to do with a contact who had reached out to him, and Killian was following a lead, but he wasn't ready to share information yet. He hadn't known the man long, he was aware that he was mostly a private person, but he would never just take off without talking to the Captain first.

"Officer Jones case was confidential. We need to find him but keep it quiet. Killian could have found something that could destroy the Resistance, we have to get to him before they do." She turned to the holo screen in front of her.

David glanced at the screen in front of the Mayor. "Resistance riders made it past the walls?" He inquired nervously.

"Yes, last night we had a breach on the west side. Officer Locksley apprehended two of them. But the rest got away."

"What were they after?"

"Trying to take down the security net near the harbor. I suspect they have a group in the foglands."

"What are the plans to take that out?"

"No plans. We'll let Hive do that for us."

David exhaled, a look of shock on his face. "You want to work with the Hive?"

"Of course not." She snorted. "But, when you have an infestation, it's easier to let the predators take each other out. It's the natural order of things."

"I don't trust the Hive any more than I trust the Resistance."

"Officer Nolan, The Hive operate outside the walls, they remove the danger before it breaches our city. And if something were to sneak its way inside, to infest our people with lies and misinformation, we have the Gold Collective to remove it, for the good of Storybrooke."

"That's another group I don't trust, how is it for the good of Storybrooke to let them make pod people!" He exclaimed.

"The Void are able to become trustful members of our society again, the Gold Collective has done a great service to our community. And as far as the Hive are concerned, as long as they continue to operate outside our walls, I welcome their removal of our shared problem."

"So how are either of them any different than the Resistance?"

The Mayor stood. "The idea of the Resistance threatens to destroy everything we hold dear. If even a single one of them is left standing, everyone we know and love, our values, our safety, are in danger. They will bring the plague to Storybrooke, they cannot be trusted, and they must be destroyed."

David nodded, taking his leave as he returned to the lower levels of the station. He knew that Regina was right, the Resistance stood to destroy everything they had worked so hard to build after the plague hit. He knew that locking people out, building the walls, was not something that the town initially embraced. He too felt guilty when they seemed to doom so many on the other side of the wall. But they had to protect their town.

When the Gold Collective first appeared, run by a man with no past yet unlimited money, taking people off the streets and experimenting on them, the Mayor went after them with the full force of the Storybrooke PD. Then the Hive came. They had kept the Hive from breaching the station walls, drove them back behind the walls and ended their yearlong power grab.

But then a strange thing started happening, townsfolk who had disappeared, those who had been experimented on during the war, returned, with no memory of who they were. Loved ones who no longer recognized their family or friends.

The Mayor came out publicly, condemning the Collective for their interference with her citizens, and then six months later, quietly began accepting the practice. David didn't know what had changed, only that Regina seemed to think that whatever Gold and his collective was doing, was protecting them. The people who had disappeared were a danger to society, conspirators who agreed with the Resistance, they needed to be stopped before their reckless behavior allowed the plague to spread inside the walls of Storybrooke.

And so, they stopped searching for the agents of the collective, when someone showed up without their memories, the town simply helped to get them acclimated to their work. People turned a blind eye to the reason they went missing, accepting them as new members of their society.

At the same time, the Hive stopped advancing on the town, disappearing into the shadows on the other side of the town's walls.

Only the Resistance fought back, the war outside the walls between the two factions was escalating. At night they could see the fires burning beyond the mountains. The smoke had become so heavy that they could no longer see the horizon over the water. The area became known as the foglands. The heavily guarded wasteland that the Resistance currently controlled.

Many nights they would send raids to the walls, trying to take down the security net that connected the walls. The resistance would not stop until it fell. And if the walls fell, the plague would take them all.

He had not heard of a single soul surviving the plague. No cure had been found. Without the walls, they would all die. The Resistance had to be stopped.

His com unit beeped, alerting him that he had reached his destination. Stepping out of the electric vehicle he walked the stairs to his home. Opening the door, he smelled the fragrant aroma of chicken baking in the back of the house. He could hear his wife's voice in the background, the alluring melody of the song she was humming making his heart smile with joy.

When he turned the corner, Mary Margaret had her back to him, swaying back and forth to the music she was singing softly to. He crept up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her neck. "Mmm it smells wonderful in here."

She melted into him, humming lightly. "You're late, darling."

"I'm sorry, I had a meeting with Regina."

"And what did the Mayor want with my husband." She sang softly.

"The usual, how to destroy the Resistance." He chuckled and then paused. "But she's more concerned about Officer Killian at the moment."

She turned in his arms, a grave look on her face. "Is he still missing? Hasn't it been weeks, David."

"I know. Regina thinks the Resistance might have gotten to him." He sighed. "I hope she's wrong. I'm worried about him, it's not like him to just go silent."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet. I've been to his apartment, the diner on 5th, the Chinese place he goes to, no one has seen him in weeks." He sat down at the table. "Regina told me to keep digging, she thinks he's important, whatever he was working on before he disappeared might be what we need to take down the Resistance once and for all."

She embraced him, pulling him against her chest. "I know if anyone can find him, you will."

He looked up and smiled at her as she bent down to press her lips to his. "I love you."

"I love you too, my Prince Charming." She broke the contact, turning back to her dinner. "Oh, by the way, I have to go out tonight. I forgot to buy the ham for dinner tomorrow."

"You should have told me; I could have picked it up for you. If you want, I can call the service, I know you don't trust the LRU's but they provide quick service."

She snorted, "Never, why would anyone trust something called a Life Replacement Unit? Even the name blatantly calls out that they mean to replace us. It's no bother for me to go to the store. It's how they did it years ago, and besides I enjoy getting out of the house."

"Well, I have some work to catch up on so I'll try and get it done before you get back, maybe we can spend the evening watching the holo."

She turned back toward him and smiled. "I would love that."

James parked his Chevelle in the assigned spot at the back of the building, watching as the platform descended into the ground, sending the car to rest beneath the apartment.

He looked up at the building, noticing the way the fog had rolled in from the harbor and hugged the side of the building. He glanced ominously toward the horizon; the smoke looked darker than it had in days. No one was talking about what was happening outside the walls, in the depths of the waters that banked against the town.

"Hey."

He jumped and turned toward a dark-haired woman. "It's bad form to sneak up on a man, lass."

"Sorry about that." She giggled. "I was wondering if you could spare a lightstick?"

Killian shook his head. "I don't use those. Bad for your health." He shrugged and stepped away from the woman.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" She chased after him.

"Look, I already told you, I don't do the stuff. Neither should you, lass." Before he could enter the building the woman grabbed him by the arm. He turned toward her quickly as she glared at him. "Listen you siren, while I appreciate a beautiful woman such as yourself getting all handsy with me, I'm not in the mood tonight."

"I just want to talk."

"I'm not in the mood for that either." He growled. "So, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now."

With a quick move, she tightened her grip on his arm, pushing his sleeve further up his forearm, staring at the black ink on his arm. "How do you know Will Scarlet?" Every sensor in his brain went off at once.

"Who the hell are you?" He demanded. "If you know that lunatic, I want nothing to do with you. He's crazy as a loon and so are you." He reached for the door to his building before he felt a pain in the back of his neck and the world around him faded to black.

He heard noises around him as the ache in his neck seemed to radiate through his body. He wasn't sure how long he had been out, but he knew he wasn't near his apartment anymore. He could hear the sound of seagulls off in the distance and the slosh of water all around him. He opened his eyes but could only see darkness and the fabric placed over his head clung to him. Whoever had taken him didn't want him to see where he was going or how he got there.

He tried to sit up when his leg hit something hard next to him, sending a clatter of noise off to his right as something smashed to the ground.

"I think our guest has woken up." Someone grumbled.

"We're almost there." He heard another voice.

"She wants to talk to him as soon as we arrive." He heard the woman's voice from the apartment.

"This is a stupid idea." The first voice whispered. "Bringing him here is going to get us all killed."

"We don't even know if he's on our side."

"Stop talking." The woman's voice rang out again. "I'm going to go help dock the boat."

James sat for what felt like a lifetime as he waited for the voices to come back, instead he listened to the strange sound of the engine, the whirl of a generator somewhere deep below him. He fell forward as the boat hit against something solid.

"Land ho." A voice boomed to his left.

Arms suddenly were grabbing him, dragging him to his feet. "Who are you, just let me go, I promise I won't tell anyone." He begged.

"You ain't in no danger 'ere." The man squawked. "Just don't be no trouble."

James tripped over the stairs and the woman's voice shrilled behind him. "Would you idiots be careful; mother will be really angry if you injure our prize."

"Sorry Ma'am." The voice to his right said apologetically with a loud sneeze.

"Maybe if he learned to walk, sister, we wouldn't have no trouble." The voice to his left grumbled angrily.

Once he stepped down again, he could tell he was standing on planks that were connected to a dock. The sway of the ground meant he was over water still. "I'll take him from here." He felt the woman slide up beside him, grabbing him by the arm. "She just wants to talk to you, that's all. If you aren't interested in what she has to say, you can go back to your miserable existence afterwards."

"Who's this she?" He asked nervously.

"The Mother of the Resistance, of course." She said with a laugh and James felt his blood run cold. He was in the foglands; he had been taken by the Resistance.

He heard a metal door squeal open on rusty hinges and he stepped onto solid ground, as soon as it slammed shut, the itchy fabric was pulled from his head, and he tried to adjust his eyes to the dark glowing lights around him.

"Welcome to the foglands." The woman announced.

"I'm positively glowing with anticipation." He said smugly and the woman snorted beside him.

"Oh, they said you were a sarcastic one. I wasn't sure if you retained that in your new existence."

"Retained what? New existence?" he asked in confusion. "What are you on about?"

"I don't think you're ready for all of that yet." She grinned as they stepped into a large metal room, water swirling around at their feet.

"Do you intend to drown me, leave me for dead?" He asked incredulously, staring around him at the boxed in room.

"No one is leaving anyone for dead." A loud voice boomed and echoed through the room. At the other end of the box, a woman stepped out of the shadows, the moonlight illuminating her face through a grate in the ceiling.

"And just who the hell are you?"

"Me?" She laughed. "I'm the Mother of the Resistance." She paused, stepping closer to him. "But you can call me Mary Margaret."