p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Chapter 2: The Battle Looms/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"span style="text-decoration-line: none;" /span/span/u/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Palatino;"Author's Note: /span/u/strongstronguspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"Sorry for the delay. Life has been crazy with work and the pandemic and my lack of a muse for writing but, I'm getting back into it and trying to update all my WIP's./span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"emspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The next day/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"emspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina awoke in the next morning to Ruby in the middle of the bed and Emma on the other side of Ruby. Regina smiled at her lovers; she had never expected herself to be in the place that she was with love again, not to mention one but two true love's. Everyone she had ever loved or cared about before was dead; Daniel, Robin Hood, and Facilier. It seemed that her female lovers and companions were more resilient with Maleficent, Emma, Ruby, and the few handmaidens she had bedded during her time as the Evil Queen still being alive. Regina realized she had been looking for her True Love in all the wrong places, she had let fairy dust and revenge take her off her path. But, if it hadn't, she wouldn't be in the happy place she was in today./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" Regina smirked as she thought about Emma challenging her to a duel. Emma, her White Knight was the Savior. But Regina had grown in her magical abilities since she was a young girl who refused to embrace her magic because of how cruel her mother was. She knew that she had accomplished mastery of Dark Magic, through sheer will and determination, after she began to reform herself, she unlocked the light magic within her. She was now able to wield light and dark magic. She had practiced harnessing her newfound light magic over the years and found that it was more innate to her than Dark Magic, but, because she had spent so many decades practicing Dark Magic it was still ingrained in her. It was as easy to call forth as her light magic was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina felt her loves began to stir. Emma and Ruby opened their eyes. Regina smirked, "Are you ready for your challenge today?" Regina said with an eyebrow raised at Emma./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Ruby held back her chuckle at the two of her True Love's./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma returned her confidant smirk, "Definitely, Madam Mayor."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The women were slow to get out of bed, as when they were wrapped into each other's embrace it was hard to let go. They all got up and got dressed to begin their day and when they parted, they all gave each other a kiss. However, on their goodbye, Ruby had whispered into Regina's ear, "Please don't hurt her too badly, you know her ego has grown over the years."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina simply responded with a smirk./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"****************************** /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma was at Granny's for her morning coffee before she went to work at the Sheriff's station. Emma heard the bell chime indicating that someone had entered the diner. Emma lifted her head to see who it was and saw Snow and Charming walking towards her. Emma turned back to her breakfast as she knew they would approach her soon and they had already contacted her many times trying to talk her out of the duel with Regina./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;""Emma." Snow said as she approached her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma hid her grimace behind her coffee cup that she lifted to her lips./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;""Emma. Are you sure you want to go through with this today?" Snow asked her daughter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma scoffed, "It's almost as if you don't believe in me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Snow's eyebrows raised, "Emma, that's not it. It's just that if I'm completely honest. Regina did cast an entire curse that devastated an entire population, Rumple chose her and her power to do so, she had plenty of chances to kill me and your Father and never did. Regina could have done worse."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma rolled her eyes, "Everyone claims I'm the Savior and I was prophesied to beat the Evil Queen which I did with True Love's kiss with Henry. I won the final battle and helped defeat countless other villains."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Snow sighed, "All with the help of Regina and your family. Maybe, we need to look at this prophecy after your embattle /emwith Regina to see what it really entailed."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma rolled her eyes at her Mom and gave her a quick hug before heading to work./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"************************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"As the clock inched towards noon, Emma grew anxious, she thought that maybe this was one of the times that she had put her foot in her mouth. However, that thought was fleeting as she thought about how she was one of the few people to still be alive after being the Dark One. Emma still retained some of that knowledge from during her time as the Dark One, maybe she could use that to her advantage. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. Although, she was surprised that everyone thought that she would lose to Regina after years of everyone egging her on that she was the Savior and how she was made from True Love and her magic was the purest of them all./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"***********************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"It was a quarter to noon and Regina stood in her mirror at home wondering if this duel was for the best. It started in jest and fun but, she could see the effect that it had taken on Emma. She knew that Emma for a long time had rejected the role that had been bestowed upon her, the title of, "The Savior". Many people had told Emma that the light magic she wielded was the purist and truest of them all That Dark magic was inherently evil. However, Regina knew the truth Dark Magic wasn't inherently evil it was what people did with it. It's as good defensive and offensive magic but, if you let it corrupt you then it would blacken your heart. The same could be said for magic in general. I now possessed light and dark magic and wielded them both when I fought in battle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"I was waging an internal battle to let Emma know the truth or to dispel all that had been taught to her. I told Emma that she had great potential and she does but, she also doesn't practice the basics of the arts. She relies on instinct alone to fuel her, which. is a major part. But it is like saying that someone who is inherently gifted at science or math doesn't need to practice or study to get better. Emma is my love. Should I shatter the greatest disillusion that she has lived for the past few years or should I help her come into who she truly is and open her up to her potential?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"**********************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The clock struck 12pm and Emma stood on the street in front of the clock tower waiting for Regina to arrive. As soon as the clock struck Regina appeared./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Palatino;"Author's Note: /span/u/strongstronguspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"Sorry for the delay and the cliffhanger. But, I feel like there are deeper elements to be explored here. Especially, with Emma being the Savior and the title and the weight of that title and her defeats being always aided by someone else or ended in TLK's or her dying. We need to explore exactly what being the Savior means./span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"span style="text-decoration-line: none;" /span/span/u/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Palatino;"Author's Note: /span/u/strongstronguspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"Sorry for the delay. Life has been crazy with work and the pandemic and my lack of a muse for writing but, I'm getting back into it and trying to update all my WIP's./span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"emspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The next day/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"emspan style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina awoke in the next morning to Ruby in the middle of the bed and Emma on the other side of Ruby. Regina smiled at her lovers; she had never expected herself to be in the place that she was with love again, not to mention one but two true love's. Everyone she had ever loved or cared about before was dead; Daniel, Robin Hood, and Facilier. It seemed that her female lovers and companions were more resilient with Maleficent, Emma, Ruby, and the few handmaidens she had bedded during her time as the Evil Queen still being alive. Regina realized she had been looking for her True Love in all the wrong places, she had let fairy dust and revenge take her off her path. But, if it hadn't, she wouldn't be in the happy place she was in today./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" Regina smirked as she thought about Emma challenging her to a duel. Emma, her White Knight was the Savior. But Regina had grown in her magical abilities since she was a young girl who refused to embrace her magic because of how cruel her mother was. She knew that she had accomplished mastery of Dark Magic, through sheer will and determination, after she began to reform herself, she unlocked the light magic within her. She was now able to wield light and dark magic. She had practiced harnessing her newfound light magic over the years and found that it was more innate to her than Dark Magic, but, because she had spent so many decades practicing Dark Magic it was still ingrained in her. It was as easy to call forth as her light magic was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina felt her loves began to stir. Emma and Ruby opened their eyes. Regina smirked, "Are you ready for your challenge today?" Regina said with an eyebrow raised at Emma./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Ruby held back her chuckle at the two of her True Love's./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma returned her confidant smirk, "Definitely, Madam Mayor."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The women were slow to get out of bed, as when they were wrapped into each other's embrace it was hard to let go. They all got up and got dressed to begin their day and when they parted, they all gave each other a kiss. However, on their goodbye, Ruby had whispered into Regina's ear, "Please don't hurt her too badly, you know her ego has grown over the years."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Regina simply responded with a smirk./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"****************************** /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma was at Granny's for her morning coffee before she went to work at the Sheriff's station. Emma heard the bell chime indicating that someone had entered the diner. Emma lifted her head to see who it was and saw Snow and Charming walking towards her. Emma turned back to her breakfast as she knew they would approach her soon and they had already contacted her many times trying to talk her out of the duel with Regina./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;""Emma." Snow said as she approached her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma hid her grimace behind her coffee cup that she lifted to her lips./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;""Emma. Are you sure you want to go through with this today?" Snow asked her daughter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma scoffed, "It's almost as if you don't believe in me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Snow's eyebrows raised, "Emma, that's not it. It's just that if I'm completely honest. Regina did cast an entire curse that devastated an entire population, Rumple chose her and her power to do so, she had plenty of chances to kill me and your Father and never did. Regina could have done worse."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma rolled her eyes, "Everyone claims I'm the Savior and I was prophesied to beat the Evil Queen which I did with True Love's kiss with Henry. I won the final battle and helped defeat countless other villains."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Snow sighed, "All with the help of Regina and your family. Maybe, we need to look at this prophecy after your embattle /emwith Regina to see what it really entailed."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"Emma rolled her eyes at her Mom and gave her a quick hug before heading to work./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"************************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"As the clock inched towards noon, Emma grew anxious, she thought that maybe this was one of the times that she had put her foot in her mouth. However, that thought was fleeting as she thought about how she was one of the few people to still be alive after being the Dark One. Emma still retained some of that knowledge from during her time as the Dark One, maybe she could use that to her advantage. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. Although, she was surprised that everyone thought that she would lose to Regina after years of everyone egging her on that she was the Savior and how she was made from True Love and her magic was the purest of them all./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"***********************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"It was a quarter to noon and Regina stood in her mirror at home wondering if this duel was for the best. It started in jest and fun but, she could see the effect that it had taken on Emma. She knew that Emma for a long time had rejected the role that had been bestowed upon her, the title of, "The Savior". Many people had told Emma that the light magic she wielded was the purist and truest of them all That Dark magic was inherently evil. However, Regina knew the truth Dark Magic wasn't inherently evil it was what people did with it. It's as good defensive and offensive magic but, if you let it corrupt you then it would blacken your heart. The same could be said for magic in general. I now possessed light and dark magic and wielded them both when I fought in battle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"I was waging an internal battle to let Emma know the truth or to dispel all that had been taught to her. I told Emma that she had great potential and she does but, she also doesn't practice the basics of the arts. She relies on instinct alone to fuel her, which. is a major part. But it is like saying that someone who is inherently gifted at science or math doesn't need to practice or study to get better. Emma is my love. Should I shatter the greatest disillusion that she has lived for the past few years or should I help her come into who she truly is and open her up to her potential?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"**********************/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;"The clock struck 12pm and Emma stood on the street in front of the clock tower waiting for Regina to arrive. As soon as the clock struck Regina appeared./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 17.6px;"span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19.0667px; font-family: Palatino;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"stronguspan style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Palatino;"Author's Note: /span/u/strongstronguspan style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"Sorry for the delay and the cliffhanger. But, I feel like there are deeper elements to be explored here. Especially, with Emma being the Savior and the title and the weight of that title and her defeats being always aided by someone else or ended in TLK's or her dying. We need to explore exactly what being the Savior means./span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" /p