In the dungeon together- part 2

Now for the first from my wee list of chapters I personally wanted to write before I said goodbye to OCF. I always wanted to do a sequel to Ch1209 "In the dungeon together".

There would be no peaceful night ahead for Snow and Emma. The pair had hardly had a chance to fall back asleep when some of Arthur's guards were bursting into their cell.

"Everybody stay exactly where you are!" One barked at them all. Everybody bolted up in their beds. Neal started to scream. Snow got a firm grip on Emma's wrist. She didn't like where this was going. Regina was doing an excellent job of not staring at the dagger on her person. That might tell them exactly where to find it. The guard who had shouted scanned the room until he saw Snow and Emma on the same bunk.

"Why are you both not on your own bed?" He asked gruffly.

"My daughter cold and I didn't want her to freeze to death." Snow responded coolly. "I didn't realise we had assigned beds in a dungeon." She remarked. Emma smirked. Her mom could be so badass. The guard's eyes narrowed at the remark, but he seemed to be focusing on other matters.

"The Dark One is coming with us." He ordered. Some of the other guards began to draw closer to Emma.

"You're not taking her!" Charming ordered from above. "She's done nothing wrong!"

"You're not exactly in a great position to stop me, are you?" The guard shouted back. "She's the Dark One. She is nothing but wrong decisions. She is coming with us until she tells us where the dagger is."

"I don't know where it is." Emma hissed. The guard snorted in disbelief. Snow had to think fast. She too could demand that they leave Emma alone, but even with the others here they would be overpowered. There was only one other option.

"Regina, look after Neal whilst we're gone please." Snow said calmly. She then turned to the guards. "If you insist on taking my daughter, she isn't going alone. I'm coming too." Snow told them. "Otherwise some of your guards are leaving here today missing teeth. Good luck explaining that to your king." Snow threatened them. The guard snarled. This Snow White was more trouble than she was worth in his opinion, but Arthur wanted Emma left unharmed. She might be subdued by the magic preventing cuff just now, but her powers were unknown. If she was provoked, who knew what she might unleash? Hurting her mother wouldn't help the situation.

"Fine." He grunted. "Maybe you there will loosen her tongue." He then commanded his guards to take them both, ignoring Charming's demands to come too. Charming collapsed on his knees on the floor of his cell. Where had they taken Snow and Emma? Would he ever see them again?

Snow and Emma were taken to the throne room, where Arthur was waiting for them. They were forced onto their knees in front of him. He raised an eyebrow questioningly to one of his guards at Snow's appearance.

"She was being a real pain." The guard explained. Arthur nodded.

"Well Emma, let's see if we can make this nice and simple. You tell me where the dagger is, and I let your people go." Arthur told her. Emma wasn't stupid. If he had the dagger, he could make her do a lot worse things to the people from Storybrooke than lock them in a dungeon. It was better that they were in there than have Arthur be able to control her.

"I don't know where it is." Emma told him. "I had it hidden from everyone, including myself, for everyone's safety. I don't know where it is, so you can't have it." Emma spat. Arthur turned his attention to Snow.

"Do you know where it is?" Arthur asked. "Because I can be very persuasive."

"What part of what Emma said confused you?" Snow asked him. "Nobody knows the location of that dagger, so if you would just let us go back to our cell then…"

Emma, break free of your shackles. Emma heard the whisper in her head. Emma had already tried to remove her shackles, but being told to do it as a Dark One command seemed to be the push she needed. She couldn't refuse a command from the person with the dagger. In this case, it was Regina. She must have worked out how to get her own magic preventing shackles off so she could access the dagger. Immediately, Emma removed the shackles from her wrist. Now free your mother too and return to us. Emma removed her mother's shackles just as quickly and then poofed them back to the dungeon. Regina smiled at them both.

"Sorry to do it this way, but I thought it might be the only sure way to make it work." Regina explained. Emma wasn't mad. It had worked.

"I can take it from here." Emma said, knowing where Regina would be going next. With a wave of her hand, everyone was free. With a second wave, they all disappeared from the dungeon and reappeared in Granny's. Now they could prepare for Arthur's next attack.