Here's another new chapter and a long one at that :)

Please enjoy!

-FantasyWriterFoSho

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Summary of the Previous Chapter: After the tracking potion led them to Emma's deserted car, Regina decided to switch targets to Gold and that led them to an ice cave. After teleporting Belle and Elsa to their new location, Regina and the latter attacked the structure in order for them to get inside.

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Chapter Fourteen: Unfurling The Truth

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Hearing something crash against the ice wall, Gold immediately reacted to it by turning towards the sound. Narrowing his eyes, he stood still and strained his ears to decipher its origin, but after a moment, there was no denying the powerful stream of magic that was being used out there.

"Regina," he surmised, his tone harsh. Deciding not to confirm his suspicions, he turned back around to continue on with his plans. Raising his dagger, he was poised to stab the wide-eyed Snow Queen, desperate to harness her magic for his own, but before he could even thrust it into her chest, he was suddenly pushed back.

Splintering through the rest of her confinement, the Snow Queen had used the distraction to gather as much strength as she could muster into her hands, building them up with an intense amount of energy until the perfect moment arrived.

After sending the surprised Dark One flying from her presence, she conquered the rest of her body, freeing herself from her invisible prison with a ragged, long breath.

Slightly wobbly in the knees, the Snow Queen then attacked the crouching Gold with a vengeance. Taking advantage of his bewildered state, she lifted one of her hands up and magically switched places with him, not wanting him anywhere near Emma or her mirror. Shoving, then pinning, his body into the sculpted wall behind him, she moved closer, blocking the majority of his view with her penetrating glare.

"How dare you," she snarled, her hand shaking under the strain of keeping him back.

Gold smiled but said nothing. Breaking her hold over him by lifting a finger, Gold slid down the wall, his legs sturdy enough to catch him then maintain his balance. Raising a hand, he tried to paralyze her then blast her away but she managed to dismiss both of those attacks with a swipe of her fingers.

"You're going to have to do better than that, old man," she taunted, her fingers starting to frost over with both ice and mist.

"Trust me," Gold began, his face twisting menacingly as the air began to rustle around him. "You don't want that, dearie..."

Summoning everything inside of themselves, the pair then attacked one another in a dynamic fury of burgundy and blue.

…

When they had stopped to evaluate their progress on penetrating the structure, the company immediately heard a loud commotion coming from inside of the fortress. Exchanging looks, Regina and Elsa instantly lifted their hands back up to attack the wall harder, each one grunting under the pressure.

When they stopped a few moments ago, they had noticed that they had barely made a dent in it. The width of the cave was too dense for them to properly break through thanks to the advanced magical properties that were attached to it.

Eyes intense, Elsa knew that it was going to take something stronger for them to really puncture the thick slab. You have to do this, she thought. You possess the same ice powers she does. You have to break through!

Closing her eyes for a moment, she focused on her body and the magic she could feel flowing inside of it. Breathing profoundly, she dug deep, but by doing so, she inadvertently weakened her attacking stream.

Noticing her lack of ferocity, Regina gave her a sideways glance. "What are you doing?!" she called out, her voice a mere whisper over their combined forces. Struggling to maintain her own, she tried to steady her stream, but could feel herself growing weaker. Fighting against the draining effects, she readjusted her stance, and her hands, before releasing an imposing surge via a forceful push of her fingers.

Eyes still closed, Elsa continued to search within herself.

Thinking about all of those years she spent in isolation, of being afraid of who she was, of being kept away from her sister, of wanting to be accepted, she could feel something form then rise inside of her stomach. Concentrating on that, she felt her hands spark beneath her already streaming energy.

You have to let it go, she rationalized. You have to accept your past in order to move forward and as Regina stated...that starts right now…

Breathing heavily, Elsa reopened her eyes and glared at the wall, her gaze stormy. "Let it go," she whispered, reigning in her magic with a retreating hand motion, she then pushed them back out, unleashing a massive ball of spiky ice right through the wall, a shriek echoing off her lips.

Knocking away Regina's beam, Elsa's magic overwhelmed then ripped through the fortress, creating a huge, wide opening near the stone door.

Dropping her hands, Regina grinned proudly while everybody else's eyes just widened at the sheer intensity of the assault.

Not wanting to waste time, Regina then bolted to the breach and climbed over various sized wedges of ice in order to fully enter the cave, her eyes scanning everything in sight. Registering the defensive silhouettes of the Snow Queen and Gold, she instinctively flung the startled pair deeper into the fortress with an unhesitant hand wave.

Recovering quickly, Elsa was the second one to enter the new mouth of the cave. Immediately moving towards Regina, they both eyed the fallen pair before advancing closer, intent on handling the situation before it escalated any further—Regina focused in on Gold while Elsa fixated on the Snow Queen.

Eyes wandering around, Killian, Mary Margaret and David were the next ones to infiltrate, but it was the former who noticed the kneeling Emma off to the left side. Crying out her name, he immediately rushed over to the crumpled form, with the other two following close behind, all of them horrified at the sight.

Frozen at the scene before her, Belle had just climbed through the entrance when the three sprinted away. Overwhelmed by the distracted, fighting form of her husband, she stayed where she was, her eyes glued in that one direction while multiple things continued to play out around her.

Also focused on one person, Killian made a beeline for Emma, who didn't react to his voice at all. Slowing down when he reached her, he carefully kneeled down beside her, his eyes taking in Emma's frightened, unblinking ones. Seeing how her head was angled back in order for her to continue staring at the mirror, Killian exchanged a pondering look between the two.

"She's being programmed," he realized quickly, his heart contorting at the sight.

"Emma?" David rasped, stooping down behind his daughter with one gentle hand on top of her head. "Honey, can you hear me?"

Crouched opposite of Killian, Mary Margaret's eyes welled up. "Emma? Emma?!"

Eager to get her attention, Killian then moved in front of her, hoping that blocking her vision from the mirror would pull her focus, but it didn't work. "Emma? Love?" he called out loudly, desperately trying to reach her.

Still in a low position, he raised his hand up to shake at one of her shoulders but found that ineffective as well.

"Help me," he directed at the pair. "Let's try carrying her away."

While Killian and Mary Margaret lent support to Emma's sides, David braced her from the back by looping his arms under hers. Lifting at the same time, they tried to pull her to her feet but she barely budged.

It was as if she was rooted down because of her current predicament.

"Bloody hell!" Killian cried, letting go so he could shift back to his original position. Moving his hand up, he cupped her tear-stained cheek and looked deep into her eyes. "You're still in there," he whispered harshly, his chest tight. "I know you are. I can see it."

"We have to think of another approach," Mary Margaret offered, her pained eyes observing her daughter's profile before she stood up, her body sore from the position.

David nodded his head, following his wife's stance. "Maybe Regina or Elsa could—"

A wave of rippled energy suddenly burst through the limited space, congealing the air with kicked up ice and dirt.

Rearing up to tightly grab ahold of Emma, Killian was the only one who wasn't knocked over in the blast—David and Mary Margaret were seemingly swept up to one side then pushed back against the wall while Regina, Gold and Elsa were simply shoved backwards, all of their bodies thumping unnaturally against the hardened ice.

"You would've joined them if you weren't sitting so close to her..."

Slightly pulling away from the woman in his arms, so she could breathe properly, Killian peeked out and spotted an approaching Snow Queen through several wisps of Emma's unkempt hair.

Wrapping his left arm around her, he tried propping her body up only to have her slump back down a few inches. Eyes blank and staring in the direction of the mirror, Killian pulled her in close, their noses now inches apart, and cupped her cheek again, his thumb rubbing away some of the muck and dried tear stains.

"Do you think you, of all people, have what it takes to remove her from my control?" the Snow Queen taunted, her voice slightly breathless. Nearing the couple, she eyed Killian contemptuously. "Even if you did have magic, you're no match for me."

"Emma," Killian said, ignoring the other woman. "Emma, please..."

"You're not good enough for her," she continued, stopping a few feet behind the younger blonde. Sidestepping a bit to have a better glimpse of the two, the Snow Queen then smiled coldly. "You will never be good enough for her and she will be better off without you. You know it. I know it and now...she knows it."

Killian's eye twinged. His heart felt as if it was being crammed between his ribs.

"The sooner you admit it, the better off we'll all be..."

"Whether I choose to say such a thing," Killian began, giving the Snow Queen an intense glare as he defended himself. "Is none of your business. I won't ever admit to being a perfect person for I have done terrible and shameful things in my past, but I have never done anything to intentionally hurt Emma. I care too deeply for her to subject her to that."

The Snow Queen raised a brow.

"But the same can't be said for you," he continued hotly, his gaze unyielding. "You have the audacity to say that you are good for her when you've done nothing but torture and stalk her and take away her choices, which should always be hers to make.

"What I've done, I've done to protect her," she responded, her face falling.

"Look at her! You've trapped her against her will!"

"I love her!" the Snow Queen screamed, the ice cave suddenly quaking. "She belongs with me!"

"She belongs to no one!" Killian countered. "She's not a pet for you to own! She has feelings. She has a family and a town full of people who appreciate and love her..." he then trailed off, an idea suddenly popping into his head. "Love..." he repeated softly, turning his eyes back onto Emma.

"The only family she has," the Snow Queen began, her hands trembling with anger. Icicles soon formed around her fingertips. "Are me and Elsa. Together, we'll be happy."

"Swan, I know you can hear me," he whispered, ignoring the other woman again so he could stare deeply into Emma's vacant eyes. Caressing her cheek with his thumb, Killian tried to bring her out of it through his words. "You have to come back. You have to come back for your family," his voice then cracked, his emotions leaking through. "...You have to come back to me..."

It took a moment before he saw it, but when he did, he gasped.

Sparkling as it rolled down her cheek...was a single tear.

Heart clutching at the sight, Killian leaned in closer, needing to feed his belief that she was on the verge of a recovery.

There.

It was faint but he could now see a lively struggle within her eyes.

She's fighting.

"Emma," he rasped, hope lighting his features. "I need you to know that you don't have to worry about your magic, or any of your fears, when you're with me because...I'll be there to help and to fight alongside you, no matter the obstacles...because I," he paused, brushing his nose against hers. "Because I love you."

Closing the distance, Killian then pressed his lips to her chapped ones, a rush of electricity igniting between them.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Snow Queen mocked. "Do you really think that because you love her that—"

A frazzled sigh suddenly wheezed over the woman's words.

Pulling away, Killian felt Emma's body fall forward, her posture now slumped and dependent on his.

"...Are...y-you..r-real?" he heard in a strained and croaked voice.

Eyes wide, Killian used his supporting arm to, once again, prop her body up before moving his hand down and closer to her neck, her pulse firm against his fingertips. Gently pushing her head back so he could look at her face, he nearly cried at the welcoming sight.

Though clammy and pale from her experience, Emma's eyes and her face were completely full of awareness.

She's back!

My Emma is back!

"I'm very real," he happily confirmed, leaning forward to kiss her again, which she feebly returned.

Lethargic and completely spent from her experience, Emma then broke the kiss by weakly falling further into his embrace, the spell officially broken.

"NO!" the Snow Queen screamed. She couldn't believe her eyes. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Raising a hand, she was going to attack the pair but was unexpectedly magically blown back again. Managing not to stumble, she glared up and met the unabashed eyes of both Regina and Gold, who had regained their senses sometime during the couple's exchanges.

Coming towards her from different directions, she soon realized that she was cornered. Safehouse and confidence now compromised, the Snow Queen sneered at the pair before taking one more look at an unmoving Emma. Then, waving a finger, she subsequently disappeared to an unknown location, leaving everybody behind in silence.

Breathing heavily, Gold stopped advancing and took a look around the ice cave, his apprehension high when he noticed the room stirring with life. He was thinking about how he could convince the company of his innocence when he spotted his wife fighting to get to her knees. Stunned at her being there, Gold took a step back but it was too late.

As if sensing him, she glanced up and met his gaze, her eyes hooded and full of untapped rage when she evaluated his form.

Knowing that she could see the dagger in his possession, Gold tried pushing away his fluttering emotions. Not wanting to face his lies or the look of betrayal now flicking in her eyes, he too lifted a finger and waved it, disappearing in a thick red cloud without saying a word to her or to anybody.

The rest, however, were oblivious to his cowardice exit.

They were more concerned about Emma, who was now lying unconscious in Killian's arms.

As they gathered around her limp body, Regina waited until everybody was there before teleporting them all to the hospital in a large, purple cloud, but before they were completely swept away, Regina summoned a fire ball into the palm of her free hand.

Noticing that the structure had weakened considerably under their attacks, Regina decided to burn it down, which would no doubt send a significant message to the Snow Queen. "Don't mess with my town," she muttered, casting the blaze from her in a fluid motion. Using a finger, she quickly directed its path around the fortress before she and the others fully, and safely, disappeared from the area.

Collapsing under the sheer potency of the magical flames, which encircled then licked up the walls, the ice cave melted in a mountain of steam before it and everything inside dissolved into an oblivion.

…

Reappearing in an empty parlor shop, the Snow Queen nearly collapsed against the main counter in complete agitation. Breathing erratically, she tried to regroup. She needed to pull herself together in order to register what had happened.

After returning and seeing the destruction of her home, it would seem as if she had lost everything: Emma, Elsa, her supplies and a place to stay, but regardless of the hopeless nature of her plan, she refused to believe that all was ruined.

Regaining her breath and thinking strategically, she straightened up and began to tap her fingers against the table. Emma has her memories back, she thought, her eyes dancing. Despite what had happened between us, I know that I can convince her to choose me. Elsa too, but I'm not too worried about that one. I just need to give back the memories I took from her and through loyalty alone, she will join me...

"All I have to do is persuade them…"

Clicking her tongue, the Snow Queen then glanced about the room thoughtfully before magically taking herself back to her destroyed ice cave, her face completely stoic when she picked up her skirts in order to walk through the rubble and mush. Kneeling down next to a specific pile, she rummaged through it before finding, then pulling, the object of her desire out.

The relic was broken and ruined beyond any natural repair.

Every inch of its surface had been pulverized into reflective dust, except one portion. Gently lowering it back down, the Snow Queen magically swiped at the localized area until she found the piece. Reaching down, she picked up a particularly large shard and analyzed it.

"Mary Margaret," she began, staring at her own image in the fragment as she continued to verbally list out certain individuals. "David, Regina and...Killian."

Standing up to her full height, she brushed some grime away from her waist and upper thigh, a ruthless smile now on her face. Still looking at the shard, she tilted her head to one side, in consideration. "I may still be able to get the town's magic afterall..."

With her new idea bubbling around inside of her head, the Snow Queen waved her hand, teleporting herself back into Storybrooke so she could properly carry it out.

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More to come! Stay tuned and thanks!