See chapter 1 for summary. Thanks for all the amazing reviews! Keep them coming! Sorry the update on this one took so long. I struggled with writer's block on this one and will probably try to be tying this one up within the next few chapters. Please review and let me know what you think! Here's individual responses:
Grace5231973: Yeah, I consider Cruella one of the worst villains, because she hurts animals. But in Once, she is hysterical. Glad you're enjoying!
Ghostwriter: Yeah, Cleo is going to be in shock. Glad you're enjoying!
Jennifer Baratta: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
AnonSnowing: Yep, more surprises. Yep, these Charmings love water. I like that she called them squirts too, lol. Yeah, the peril is Cruella and her goons. Yes, David found Neal and then trouble ensued. Yeah, Cruella is dangerous, but hopefully they can outwit her. More twists ahead. Glad you're enjoying!
Sexystarwarslover: Yes, peril indeed! Yep, they found Bae! But there's trouble already and it's Cruella of course. Yep, they are dead is they touch Snow. Cruella is trouble, but at least she's entertaining. They're in a pickle, but it's Cruella so hopefully they can outwit her. There are more twists ahead! Glad you're enjoying!
Mysterious Fathoms Below
Chapter 11: Twists and Turns
"We need a plan," David muttered, as Cruella's hired hands milled about and Snow picked at her lock.
"I know...picking this lock is no good if I don't have my legs," she whispered. He saw Cruella examining her necklace. Getting it back wouldn't be easy. Cleo was still in a bit of shock and he could see the questions in her eyes.
"It's okay…you can ask," he said.
"She's a mermaid?" Cleo asked.
"Yes…but I wasn't born like this. We're not…from this land," Snow answered.
"That much I gathered…so are you like this too?" she asked.
"I can be…this was a curse at first. When I broke the curse, Snow would have become human again, but our war against the Evil Queen would have just continued. A fairy offered a different option," he explained.
"Charming gave me true love's kiss and she reversed the spell, making him like me," Snow continued.
"Charming?" Cleo asked.
"Oh…it's my nickname for him. My real name is Snow White," she revealed.
"This is too wild," Cleo said, as she shook her head.
"And the kids? They're like this too?" she asked.
"Yes…but they can be both at will. They don't need an enchantment like we do," David explained, as he showed her his necklace, which was keeping him human at the moment.
"And her?" Cleo asked.
"Cruella De Vil…but I'm not sure how she escaped to this world," he replied.
"That's definitely it…I'm definitely in the twilight zone," she muttered.
"I know it seems that way…but I promise you that we're just people. Cruella, on the other hand,…is a monster. If she thought she could wear our scales like one of her coats, she'd filet us," he said quietly.
"And this place we're going?" Cleo asked.
"It's a town, completely cut off from your world. The Evil Queen cursed our entire land to this one. Snow and I escaped, hoping she'd stop seeking revenge on us. But she didn't," he explained.
"Our people are safe there for the most part, but they won't be if Cruella gets power. She's worse than Regina," Snow said.
"Regina?" Cleo asked.
"My step-mother…the Evil Queen," Snow answered.
"So…what do we do?" Cleo asked.
"We need help…David you need to escape and bring help," she whispered.
"I'm not leaving you and the kids. It's out of the question, Snow," he refused.
"Then we need to have a plan once we reach Storybrooke," she replied. He nodded and glanced back at their captors. Snow knew things wouldn't go well if they got to Storybrooke and Regina managed to separate them again. She feared what would happen to her husband and children and all manners of horrors haunted her mind, as she looked up at the sky, as if to plead to the Gods. That's when she spotted a Seagull above them and he seemed to notice her too. David saw the exchange and hope filled him. His wife still had her ability to speak to birds. The Seagull squawked loudly above them incessantly for several moments and started to annoy Cruella.
"Shoo! Shoo! Or I'll make a nice handbag out of you!" she called, as more Seagulls began to circle and Cruella let out a wretched scream when they began their attack. The Seagulls dive bombed her and her cohorts. David used the opportunity and tackled Horace first, punching him out, while Jasper pointed a gun at him. Cruella continued to screech and Snow's enchanted bracelet went flying. Ben scrambled to grab it, as it landed near him and he put it around his mother's wrist. There was a poof of magic and Snow had legs again, as she got up.
"Charming!" she cried, as she saw Jasper pointing the pistol at the man she loved. She grabbed a discarded piece of wood on the deck and slammed Jasper over the head with it. David got the gun and pointed it at Horace, who was starting to come around. Cruella continued to scream, as they pecked at her and it seemed the birds soon realized they had turned the tide, as they flew away.
"Sorry Cruella…we're going to detour this little expedition back to shore," David said, as Snow tied her up and he took care of the others.
"Your parents certainly know how to take care of things," Neal mentioned. Emma smiled.
"They're great leaders," she replied. He sighed.
"People deserve to be led by them…" Neal said, as she looked at him and they docked back at shore.
"Yeah…but we barely got out alive last time. Regina almost won," she said.
"But with the right motivation, my father would support your parents if they returned and you could break the curse," Neal replied.
"Right motivation?" Emma asked.
"Me…I'm the reason he cast the curse and wanted to come to this land," Neal replied.
"But I thought you were determined to never see him again," Emma said.
"I was…but I realized that it's not fair to all the people that were cursed. Regina may have cursed them, but you can bet it's my father that made sure she did in order to get to this land," he lamented.
"So…what are you saying?" Emma asked. By this time, he had Snow and David's attention too.
"We need to go to Storybrooke," he announced.
"It's where we belong and then you can break the curse, freeing everyone from Regina's rule. My father will back you…as long as he has me back, because it's going to be my condition that he does the right thing if he wants to even have a chance of having me in his life," Neal said. Snow and David exchanged a glance and smiled.
"That's very selfless and brave of you, Neal," Snow said. He sighed.
"Don't pat me on the back too much…if I'm honest, I'm tired of being on the streets and running all the time," he admitted.
"It's a hard life and you should have better. I am sure your father will want you to live with him, but until you're ready for that, you have a place with us," David said.
"Then we're going?" he asked. They nodded.
"Yes…running and living between worlds is becoming too dangerous for us too. Your father may have said we needed to wait until Emma was twenty-eight, but we have to assume that was because that hinged on finding you," Snow said.
"Yeah…he said nothing about the possibility of you coming home to him. It might change everything," Emma agreed.
"So…we wouldn't ever have to move again?" Ben asked. Snow shook her head.
"No…and no more hiding who we are," she replied, as she held the baby.
"Isn't Regina gonna freak though?" Emma asked. David chuckled and Snow elbowed him playfully.
"Probably, but we'll be ready and she also won't want you to break the curse. With a united front, she's not going to have a lot of leverage. Even in her town, she can't just try to kill newcomers to her town in broad daylight. The townspeople will naturally be curious about us and we'll be sure to make a splash, so to speak," David said, as his kids groaned at his dad jokes.
"Excuse me…but what about me!? If you think I won't get free and follow you to town, you have another thing coming," Cruella warned.
"I'll take care of you," Cleo chimed in, as she was looking at her phone.
"The bounty on you and your cohorts will set me for a good while. Apparently, word is that your husband sold you out hard and the Feds want you too," Cleo mentioned. David smirked.
"Enjoy Federal prison then. I doubt they have fur lined orange jumpsuits," he joked, as they waited nearby out of sight until the local authorities arrived to help Cleo take them in. Cruella started ranting about mermaids, but quickly quieted when she realized the Feds weren't buying it and it was going to land her in the psych ward. Cleo had them wait for a moment, while she came to say goodbye.
"I guess this is it…are you driving there?" she asked.
"No…I'm going to use this ship and tow us there. We can only pass through Storybrooke's magical barrier in our other form," David replied, as they shook hands.
"Well…good luck to you. You've been a great partner," she said.
"Thanks…you too," he said, as she watched them set sail in the boat, before leaving with the feds. Once they were far enough away from shore, Snow and David removed their pendants and handed them to Emma, as they took to the water. They attached a rope to each side of the boat and then tied them around their waists.
"Ready?" he asked. She smiled and kissed him tenderly.
"I am…and you know I love a good swim with my husband," she replied, as their lips met again.
"Guys…" Emma complained. They shared a chuckle, before joining hands and diving, beginning their journey to Storybrooke.
Regina awoke to her normal routine that morning and though she would never admit it, she was bored. It was the same thing every day with no resistance to her iron fist type rule. After her enemies had escaped years ago with their baby, and the Flynn's, Gold only let her maintain her rule, because she left him and Belle alone. He remained awake and she let him subtly romance Belle, who had no memories and as far as she could tell, still didn't. They seemed cozy nevertheless, which irked her, since she remained alone, mostly, with the exception of her occasional dalliance with Graham. But she didn't dare cross him, though she wondered how long it would be until he decided he wanted to enact revenge on her. She knew he hadn't forgiven her and likely never would. He hadn't acted against her though and she knew what he was waiting for. She still had about ten years to figure out how to stop her enemies from returning with their brat that could break her curse and threaten her power. Ten years to find a way to thwart them and make them pay. She hadn't been exactly proactive in finding them, but she had put out subtle feelers into the Land Without Magic, only to come up empty. She had no idea what names they were living under, after all. She still had ten years though. She'd find them and then hire someone on the outside to get rid of them before they could return. She smirked at the thought. She would make sure to make a trip outside Storybrooke to see their demise, personally.
As she walked to the diner to have her normal breakfast, with the glorious thought of Snow White meeting some horrible end, while her family watched, the same things she expected would occur. Marco would be fixing the sign above the hardware store, Moe would wheel out his cart of the same fresh flowers, Granny would set the specials board outside the diner, and Archie would pass her by with Pongo. As expected all those things occurred, as she prepared to enter the diner. But one thing was very different this morning and she nearly jumped out of her skin, as the clock tower struck eight in the morning and chimed.
She froze in her tracks and looked up at it in shock. Never in the years since they came here had time moved even an inch. The clock never moved from its position and something had changed that. She felt a gnawing in the pit of her stomach and then saw the problem ahead of her. It was them. They had a lot of children with them…but it was them.
The town was abuzz this morning. It was no secret that Storybrooke was a sleepy town that rarely, if ever got any outside visitors and if the residents really thought about it, they would realize that no one ever came to Storybrooke. Until now. Word spread very fast last night when a large family arrived in town and checked into Granny's Inn. Ruby had been excited by the prospect of new people in what she referred to as their boring town. Supposedly, they had been to all kinds of places, but were looking to settle down with their children. And the husband was inquiring about jobs in law enforcement. Apparently, he had experience and Ruby was only too happy to inform him that Sheriff Graham had been looking for a Deputy for quite some time. Their Sheriff was a night owl and wanted someone for the day shift, which was perfect for a family man.
"So…what are all their names?" Granny asked, as she enjoyed seeing the little ones run around. It had been a very long time, longer than she could remember, since she had little ones around and she missed it.
"Well, this is Jackson, our youngest. Then we have Astrid, Hunter and Rose, our twins, Ben and then our eldest, Emma," Snow said, though she had introduced herself as Margaret Nolan. Unsurprisingly, no one remembered them from their brief visit years ago.
"Emma…what a lovely name," a voice said, as they turned to find Gold there with Belle. There was already awareness in his eyes and obviously he had remained uncursed
He looked at all of them and noticed the seven children, though he instinctively knew that only six of them were Charmings. He was stunned by the dark haired teen and his mouth was agape.
"Bae?" he whispered, almost afraid to hope. The boy nodded.
"Yes…it's me, Papa," Neal replied.
"You're…you're here," he said, confused that his son would come to him willingly.
"I am…and it's thanks to Emma's family that I realized I should come home, even though I'm still angry with you," he replied.
"And you have every right to be," he agreed, as he looked at the Charmings.
"It would seem that I owe the favor this time," he said.
"All we want is to settle down and raise our family here where we belong. We know Regina will throw a fit, but there's no need for the curse anymore," David replied.
"So it would seem…welcome home," he said.
"What the hell is this!?" Regina hissed.
"We've come home where we belong and this time, neither your threats or viciousness will drive us away," Snow hissed back. Regina smirked.
"Oh…is that so?" she hissed back.
"It is…" David said, as he pulled his jacket back, revealing the Deputy badge on his hip.
"We'll see about that…" Regina growled, as she stormed off.
"So…any idea how this curse breaks, Papa?" Neal asked. His normal stoic demeanor softened.
"I'm afraid that I only saw that the curse is broken by the Savior…and not how she did it, Bae," he answered.
"This is your son that you told me about?" Belle asked. He nodded.
"This is Baelfire," he replied.
"That's another thing…I go by Neal now," he added. Rumple nodded.
"And I'm still not happy with you…but I'm going to try to make this work," he said.
"Fair enough…perhaps we can start with breakfast," Gold suggested.
"Okay…but I want them to come too. They saved me from Pan and helped me escape Neverland. Then they kept looking for me when I ran away, because I was afraid to get close to another family and saved me again. They're my family too," Neal said. He smirked.
"I have no objections and it will do us well to stick together, because Regina won't take your return lightly," he said.
"We figured she wouldn't…but it's too dangerous out there for us now. There's no way Cruella isn't flapping her gums to the Feds about our…enchantment," David replied. Even Gold looked surprised at that.
"Cruella?" he asked. The Prince nodded.
"Somehow she escaped the curse. Any idea how?" he asked.
"No…but she was from the Land Without Color originally, I believe and she's resourceful," he answered.
"Well…she was arrested and I doubt the Feds will believe her about mermaids, but we can't be too careful. As you can see…it's not just Snow, Emma and me now," he said, as they went inside the diner. Gold smirked again.
"Yes…you've been busy," he mused, as they proceeded to a table. To their surprised, Belle didn't seem all that confused and despite no memories, seemed to accept everything they said. That was curious too, but they supposed Gold had ample time to explain everything and somehow proven the truth of what he said. It would definitely be an interesting breakfast.