Hey everyone, before we get started I wanted to give a quick shout out to loboselina's story: Kiddo. It's an Emma de-age fic with a lot of twists that I haven't seen before. So, give it a read if you haven't already and leave her some awesome reviews. Now onto the fic. Lots of angst in this one…

Chapter Nine: Monster

8 Years Earlier

Emma let out a long dramatic sigh as August followed behind her as she entered the garden. "Auggie," she dragged his name out. "You don't have to come."

"Yes, I do. It's my job to take care of you," he told her. Their parents were meeting up with a few other royal families from nearby kingdoms and they all had children around Emma's age. He had offered to watch them, in order to keep an eye on Emma. He knew that the other kids could be snobby and after "the incident" a few months prior, he didn't want anyone to make fun of her.

"Fine, but you have to stay there," the 8-year-old instructed, pointing to a tree. She didn't want any of her friends to think she was a baby because her older brother followed her around everywhere.

August smiled. "Deal." He leaned against the tree and pulled a book from his satchel. Emma seemed satisfied and walked over to where the nanny had escorted all of the other kids.

"Hi," she said with a big smile. They all looked up at her, some clearly a little scared and others, one she had only seen on her older sister's face when she tried to get her to play with her lately.

"Hi," Hannah, one of the older girls spoke up.

"What do you want to play? I could go get my dolls and we could have a tea party…"

"We're only here because our parents are meeting with your parents," another girl, Teresa, interrupted her. Emma frowned. It wasn't often she saw any of these girls and she knew why, they lived far away, but she didn't mind. It wasn't often she had people to play with. Ever since "the incident", no one really wanted to play with her anymore. It didn't seem to matter that she was a princess, they feared her or thought she was weird.

"We can still play."

"We don't want to play with you. What if you make a tree fall down like you did with that chandelier?"

"Yeah," Hannah piped up again. "No one wants to play with you. You're such a freak."

"A monster," Teresa clarified.

Tears sprung to Emma's eyes as she looked at the other girls, they were all agreeing with her. She could feel a lump forming in her throat, as the memory from that night came flooding back. It had been her first proper ball. She was so excited; her mom had finally decided she was old enough to go. Odette had done her hair and made sure she had the very best dress to wear, it even matched Alise's. August and Derek even got teary eyed at how she looked when she made her grand entrance with her mother and sister. She had her first dance with her father, everything was going to plan.

Even so, being around so many people was making her nervous. She didn't like large crowds, princess or not. She could feel her magic sprouting up, as it normally did when she got anxious, but she tried to contain it. Until it was too late, the sparks flew from her hand and hit a chandelier. August would later joke maybe they should just remove all of them from the palace, because clearly Emma's magic was a magnet for them. No one found it funny. Emma's magic hadn't been kept secret from the kingdom, but it also wasn't exactly something they went around telling people. Despite the king and queen's assurance that she wasn't a danger to anyone, that it had been a fluke-one that hadn't happened in 5 years-people were still afraid. Emma had hidden in her room, crying, not even August could get her to calm down. It had been 6 months ago and people still weren't over it, clearly.

Emma didn't get to have a life like the other children in her kingdom. It didn't mean it was a bad life, it was just different. She couldn't attend the school, she had to have a private tutor since her lessons included more than just the average ones. She didn't get to see her parents as much as other children since they were so busy running a kingdom. It wasn't something she really complained about, she was used to it. But before then, the one thing that made it worth it was having friends to play with. All her life, she had been praised for her magic, told that it was what made her special but in that moment, she didn't feel it.

Instead of her usual snappy comeback, Emma just turned around and walked off. August, who hadn't been able to hear the exchange, looked up from his book and saw what was going on. He quickly chased after her.

"Emma! Where are you going?"

"To my room!" Emma snapped back.

"Hey," August grabbed hold of her shoulder and turned her around. She was crying. Instantly his muscles tightened. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to play with them."

"Why? What happened?"

"Nothing. Just let me go."

"I'm not going to do that. Come on, Em. We don't do this, we talk," he knelt down so he was at her height. "What's going on?"

"No one likes me, August! No one wants to play with me anymore! They think that I'm a monster!" Emma cried out.

August bit his lip, shaking his head. Those stupid little brats, he wanted to send them all to the dungeon, sick a dragon on them. He knew why people were making fun of her, they were afraid. But it was no excuse, there was nothing to be afraid of. "Em, they're morons."

"That's not a nice thing to say," Emma sniffled.

"Well they're not exactly being nice to my baby sister, so why should I be nice to them?" HE gave her a small smile. "Listen, they don't know what they're talking about. They just don't understand. You're not a moron, you're special."

"I don't feel special."

"But you are. You're…" August caught himself before he said the "s" word. It would make it so much easier to explain things to her. She was the savior, destined to save a kingdom. That's why she had magic, she was the product of true love. "You're just a really special girl. And if they can't see that, then they're idiots."

Emma sniffled again and wiped her sleeve against her nose. She wasn't supposed to do that, but her mom wasn't around to reprimand her. "They don't want to play with me."

"Like I said, idiots. We can go play."

"You're supposed to be watching us."

"I'll tell Jenny to watch them," August told her, referencing her nanny. It was her job anyway, he had just wanted to be there in case something like that had happened. "We can go do whatever you want."

Emma was quiet for a moment. "Even go ride horses?"

"Even that."

"Okay." As they walked off, Emma slipped her hand into her brother's. "Auggie…you're never going to think I'm weird, right?"

"Of course not. I'm always going to love you, powers and all," August gave her a smile, which she matched.

In The Present

Emma and August were heading to the diner to grab some lunch when the ground began shaking. August automatically held onto her while kept himself up by holding onto a fire hydrant.

"What's going on?!" Emma shouted as a light overtook them.

"I don't know!" August yelled back, trying to keep them both up. Finally, the temporary earthquake ended and he let her go, still confused. That seemed so random, where had it come from?

Emma felt something boiling up in her body and she instantly cursed herself. She knew this feeling. It wasn't one she got often, but even so it was familiar. Her hands were tingling while her stomach burned. Her head was swarming with a million little voices and her entire body ached. She was going to have a magic meltdown. Somehow, the Land Without Magic, must have gotten its magic back. She had spent a little over a week holding back her anger, anxiety and sadness over the situation that she had found herself in. It was all manifesting in her magic, now that she could. She was trying to use the methods she had been taught to hold back these outbursts but this time, her magic was just too strong.

"Emma?" August saw the look on her face, it was one of pain.

"Run," Emma was able to choke out.

"Emma, what's going on?"

"I'm serious August, you need to run, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this in…"

Without any more warning, electricity was spurting out of her hands. She tried to will it to stop, to not much luck. August attempted to jump out of the way, but the sparks hit a window of a nearby shop, bounced off and hit him, causing him to fall to the ground, hitting his head on the way down.

The sparks ceased and Emma felt drained, as she always did. Her lethargic feeling was quickly replaced by worry when she saw August on the ground, his forehead bleeding a little.

"Auggie!" She went to run to his side, but was pushed out of the way by Geppetto. He knelt by his son and pulled him into his arms. August was still half-conscious, it was clear that he was going to need stitches. Emma went to move closer to him, until she saw her brother's father's body language. It was one she had seen before.

"This is all your fault!" He accused. It was only then that Emma realized the small crowd that had been gathered during her magical outburst. They were all staring at her, for the most part wide eyed. There was only one person who didn't seem shocked, Rumpelstiltskin.

"I…I didn't mean to, it was an accident. Here, I can fix it…" Emma went to attempt to get closer once again, but the older man was having none of it.

"Get away from him! You…you monster!"

Emma's chest tightened at the words. She looked back at the group and then over at her brother, clearly too dazed to understand his father's words.

"Stop…stop staring at me!" She demanded, her voice suddenly turning angry.

"Emma?"

The teen whipped around at the sound of the familiar female voice to see Charming and Snow standing there, looking confused. They hadn't been there when her magical outburst occurred. "Just…stay away from me. All of you!" And with that, she took off.

"Emma!" Snow called out after her, panic filling her. What had happened to her daughter?

Charming looked over at Geppetto and a still barely awake August. "What happened?"

"What happened," Geppetto said, his voice calming down a bit. "Is that your daughter, hurt my son!"

"These sparks just started coming out of her hand," Doc explained. "Like magic."

"Emma has magic," Snow said, remembering what she had been told. "She's the product of true love."

"Well her magic hurt my son," Geppetto said.

"It was an accident," Rumple's voice could be heard from the front of the crowd. It surprised even Belle, who was standing beside him. "The princess hasn't been able to use her magic for quite some time, with it being returned to Storybrooke, it makes sense that this would happen."

"Even so…"

"Even so, my daughter is scared and it doesn't seem like you did much to help her," Charming interrupted the carpenter. He turned to Snow, worry on his face. "We have to find her."

"Yes." Though Snow's eyes were on August's head wound. That's when Blue emerged from the crowd.

"I can heal him, easy." She could see Geppetto's hesitance but he relented, knowing it would be better than having to bring him to Whale.

Charming and Snow began the search for Emma, knowing she couldn't have gone far. They checked Granny's, then the station before finally heading to the loft, only to come up empty.

"We can't…we can't lose her," Snow's voice was breaking as her heartbeat quickened. Charming wrapped his arms around her waist.

"We're going to find her," he promised. "We always find people in this family. There's not very many places she could go."

"What if she crosses the town line? She's probably not affected by the whole curse on it, because she wasn't cursed here. But that means that we can't go looking for her!"

"She's not going to cross the line." Though, Charming wasn't entirely positive of that himself. "Let's just keep looking, before someone finds her first."

Both knew who he was talking about. Regina was at large and if what she said was true, there was her sister to worry about. They stormed back down the stairs and headed to the only other place they could think of: the woods. Snow drove them there in her car, something Charming was still getting used to in the strange land. They weren't like the carriages back home. Finally, they reached the edge and began searching for her.

"Emma!" Snow yelled out. "Emma, are you in here?"

There was no response, but as they got deeper in, they could hear sniffles. Carefully, they headed around a rather large pine, to find their daughter sitting there, crying. Both paused for a moment. The last time they had seen her crying, was the day she was born. Those cries still haunted them both, it had been the last thing Snow heard before sleep some nights. The cries of her newborn daughter as she was taken away to be sent away. Charming could still remember when she finally stopped crying after being taken from Snow's arms, as if she knew what was happening. Had they raised her, they would know how to handle this moment. They would know what she needed when she cried, when she was distraught. They would've learned about her magical outbursts and helped her handle all of them. They wouldn't have let her run off like that, let anyone make her feel bad for it.

But in that moment, neither knew what to do. They didn't know how to comfort their daughter. What did she need? Was she someone who wanted a hug? Did she hate being told "It's okay"? Neither wanted to push, to hurt her further or make her uncomfortable. At the same time, they knew they couldn't very well just stand there. Snow took the first steps forward, kneeling besides Emma.

"Emma," she whispered.

Emma froze for a moment, before quickly wiping her tears. She didn't want them to see her like that. She didn't cry in front of a lot of people, just her family. She knew deep down that they were, but it didn't feel it quite yet. They weren't going to understand. Neither of them had magic. Neither of them had ever done anything like that.

"Please…just go away," she finally managed to choke out in response.

"We can't do that," Snow told her. "We're not upset with you."

Charming nodded in agreement, though he realized that since Emma was staring at her hands, she couldn't see him. He crouched on the other side of her. "We know it was an accident."

"I hurt August," Emma whispered. "I…I didn't mean to."

"We know. He's going to be okay," Charming assured her. "Blue is fixing his cut."

"I still…God. He's the one person and I…I just couldn't help it. And now…his dad thinks…" Emma batted a tear from the side of her eye.

"What does his dad think?"

Emma bit her lip. She knew her parents were already upset with Geppetto for the wardrobe and she also understood why he got upset. His only experience with magic hadn't been the greatest and then it was hurting his son. "He just thinks what everyone does…that I'm a monster, a freak." Charming felt anger radiate his lungs as Snow clenched her fist. Of course, he would say something like that. "Look…I get it. He doesn't…he doesn't understand."

"He still shouldn't have said that," Snow told her, her voice a mixture of parental love and anger-towards Geppetto.

"I'm used to it," Emma admitted.

"I don't understand. Your…your parents…" That was still hard for Snow to get out.

"They didn't think it was weird, neither did August or Alise along with a few close friends of the family. But a lot of the kingdom…it was just weird to them. Magic there…it isn't a good thing. It's typically only used by villains. Heroes don't use it, only monsters. It's not like where you're from. There were a few people who had converted to good that helped me, but for the most part…no one understood."

Pain filled Snow and Charming's hearts. How could people be so cruel? Especially to a child. Emma was only 16 and from the sounds of it, she had been going through all of it for quite some time. How could anyone think that she was a monster?

"You aren't a monster, Emma," Charming told her, feeling bold enough to place a hand on her arm. She didn't pull away, but didn't meet his glance either. "You're special. This magic, it's a part of who you are…"

"It's what makes me the savior," Emma whispered.

"That's not all you are," Snow replied, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"If…if this magic hadn't come back…if I couldn't help us find a way home…" Emma didn't know how to ask it, but she had to. The subject was out there. "Would you still want to know me?"

Snow stared at her in shock. "Of course we would. Emma, our love for you isn't tied up with you being the savior."

"You're our daughter, we love you unconditionally," Charming added.

"How?" Emma's voice broke. "We just met and you two love me…I don't…I don't understand it."

The queen gave her a small smile. "As your father said, you're our daughter. We know that for you, we're brand new. You didn't know about us. But we've known about you, we knew you were coming. Yes, for 28 years we didn't remember, however we still had 8 ½ months to prepare for you. We loved you from the minute we knew you were coming."

Emma looked between the two of them. It was too much. When she first read Odette's letter, she didn't understand how they could do what they had. Once she saw the nursery, she understood that they had wanted her, but even so. She had grown up without them. She didn't feel anything for them yet and they cared so much for her. They were looking at her in a way that only her other family had. All of it was just too much.

"I…" Emma wiped away the rest of her tears and stood up, brushing herself off. "I'm sorry…I shouldn't have run off like that."

Snow and Charming rose to their feet as well. "It's alright," Snow told her. "We understand. But you don't have to run Emma, we're not going to be afraid of you."

"It's normally under control, my magic. It only gets like that when I get really stressed out or anxious and even then, I have exercises to stop it. This was just because…"

"Emma." Charming put a hand on her arm, once again. "It's okay. You're not in trouble."

Emma let out a deep, shaky breath. "At least no chandeliers were hurt this time," she mumbled.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing," the blonde smiled a little. "It's a long story…let's just say that I had a few magical outbursts that wrecked a couple light fixtures. I seem to be a magnet to them."

"So…we should get rid of the lamps then?" Charming joked.

"Charming!" Snow exclaimed, but Emma just started to laugh a little.

"If you're overly attached to any of them, I'd suggest it," the teen teased back.

Charming smiled. "Good to know. Come on, let's go home. You look exhausted."

Emma wanted to argue but she knew that she couldn't. The whole ordeal had taken a lot out of her. She followed the couple back to their car, a small amount of relief being lifted from her. They hadn't yet seen her magic in action (outside Snow witnessing the kiss), but they seemed to be okay with it. All of it was going to take getting used to, but she would try. They certainly were. She still felt guilt for the incident and she would until she knew that August was okay…that is if Geppetto ever let her see him again. If August even wanted to see her again. Her magic had never hurt him in the past, only helped. She suddenly worried he wouldn't want to be her brother anymore. It wasn't as if he needed to protect her anymore, if he didn't want to. The job was done.

The ride back to the loft was quiet and once they were there, Emma headed up to her room. Snow busied herself in the kitchen, making some hot chocolate. She knew her daughter may need some space, but at the same time, she felt like they had made some progress, only to have it shut down in the car. She carried the mug up the stairs and found Emma sitting on her bed, knees drawn to her chest.

"Hey," Snow said, softly. Emma glanced up, her eyes tired and worried.

"Hi," she whispered back.

Snow made her way over to the bed, sitting beside her, handing it over. "Whipped cream and cinnamon."

"Thanks." Emma stared down at the chocolatey drink, inspecting the little brown spice sprinkled on top.

"Do you want to talk about it more?"

"Not really."

"I know I don't really get it, you just seemed to be doing better before we got to the car."

Emma bit her lip. She did have something to get off her chest and typically the person she would talk to, was potentially never going to speak to her again. "It's August."

"What about him?"

"Growing up…he was always there for me. No matter what happened, he was the one person I could depend on."

"Sounds like he took Geppetto and Blue's orders seriously."

"He did. I just didn't know why he was doing it at the time." Emma sighed, setting the mug onto the side table. "But now, the curse has been broken. I did what I needed to do, what he was sent to make sure I was supposed to. Ever since it happened…I wondered if that would be it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…just like I've discovered I have this whole other…family…so does he. Geppetto and Jiminy, they were that to him first. Now, he doesn't have to worry about protecting me. And especially considering what I just did…what if he doesn't want to be my brother anymore?" Emma said the last part so quickly, so she couldn't take it back. She didn't plan on sharing so much with Snow, she just had to tell someone.

Snow looked down at her daughter, she could almost feel the anxiety radiating off of her. "Sweetie, ever since I saw you again, I've seen the way that August looks at you. I don't have any siblings, but it's one I have seen on older brothers and sisters' faces when they're trying to protect their younger ones. He loves you, no question. That's not going to stop just because you broke the curse."

"But I hurt him."

"Not intentionally. And if he's the one person who's always understood you, then I think he'll get this."

Emma gnawed on her lip some more, to the point where she was beginning to taste the blood. "You think?"

"I know. And don't worry about Geppetto, August is a grown man capable of making his own choices."

"I don't want him to have to pick between us."

"And if Geppetto is smart, he won't make him."

Emma nodded. "Thanks, Snow."

"Anytime," she gave her a small smile. "I'll give you some time alone."

Snow knew from the blonde's grateful nod that it's what she wanted, so she rose to her feet. After some hesitation, she kissed the top of her head and walked downstairs. She had thought that learning the good stuff from Emma's childhood was bittersweet. She was happy that Emma had been happy, but of course she wished that she could be there for her. But finding out that parts of it had been less than perfect, were heartbreaking. How badly she wished that she could've been there for her during those tough times, to hug her, comfort her. To make sure she knew just how loved she was.

In that moment, she made a vow to herself. She was not going to let anyone in the town treat her daughter the way that she had in the past. If anyone had a problem with her, they were going to have to go through her and Charming first. And God helped anyone who tried that.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! We are getting to more of the Charming family feels as Snowing learns more about Emma's past. Next chapter, we'll find out how August reacts to what his father said to Emma. As always, tell me what you guys want to see. This story is shaping out to be pretty long, so if you have things you want included, I'll be able to. Hope all of you reading have an amazing day! We're just T-Minus 12 days until the 6B premiere! Yay! Until next time friends. =)