Chapter four

Ella paused in confusion. Husband, she had never had a husband. Not that she remembered but her Mother had, and Ella was a double for her mother when she was younger.

"Your Snow's father…" Ella asked as the figure pulled at the young girl's arm, pulling her closer to him.

"Regina do not play dumb. Where are we? What has your magic done to us? And where is Snow?" He pulled Ella's arm harder, causing intense pain in her arm.

"My magic has not done this, I live here now. You have been dead for years. Now let go of me or I will use my magic." Ella replied as she looked back towards where the others were hiding. Hoping that her mother was about to step out of her trance like state.

"Let her go…" A sleepy Imogen called out quietly as Emma placed her hand over her goddaughter's mouth.

"Well I am clearly alive, I am holding on to you now. So I am clearly not a ghost." Leopold replied as Ella flicked her free wrist producing a fireball which missed her target.

"Don't be stupid. Take me to Snow now..." Leopold yelled as he grabbed Ella's other wrist, tightening his grasp. Ella yelped out aware that this was a dangerous game she was playing, pretending to be Regina, the Regina before the Evil Queen had even begun. The Regina, who was tortured by this very man, the man who was holding Ella so tight that she could no longer feel her fingers in one hand.

"Well, let me just call her and I am sure she will be here as quickly as her car will let her," Ella said as she pulled away and reached into her coat pocket and dialed Snow's number. Regina was starting to come out of her stance, looking towards her daughter being pulled by Leopold's grasp, she could feel the pain rising in her own flesh as his knuckles tightened around the arm of the young girl.

"Hi Snow… It's Regina look don't panic we are all okay.. but could you possibly get down here… Okay.. see you in a minute…" Ella sighed as she hung up, fully aware that Snow would know it wasn't Regina on the phone, but her daughter instead.

"What is that thing you just used?" Leopold asked as Ella passed it to him.

"That my love is a phone, and this is how the years have changed the world. This is why I need you to let me go, your daughter will be here soon. I am not the same woman that you left behind; I am not scared of you. I have a family to protect and I will not let you destroy what I have here. So I suggest when Snow gets here you go with her. Until I work out what we are going to do next." Regina stepped back, placing a kiss on Imogen head, which still had Emma's hand clasped across her mouth.

"Imogen I need you to go with Auntie Emma, I need to help your sister. I need to save the town. I need to do some big girl things… Please, Imi.." Imogen looked up at her mother.

"Okay Mummy, but you come back soon…" Regina nodded as she planted a kiss on the young girl's head. She turned to Emma.

"Take her back to the house. If you catch Snow tell her.. that he is here. If you don't then me and Ella will deal with it… Just go." Emma looked up at her friend.

"Be careful, he may be my grandfather, but I don't trust him, Regina," Emma said as she vanished in a cloud of smoke, taking Imogen with her. Regina sighed as Emma disappeared with her daughter. Here she was thirty- six years later back in the same position as before petrified about the man, who she knew she could kill. That same man was holding her daughter so tightly and she could see the pain in her eyes, as he had mistaken the younger brunette for her. But for some reason, Ella was letting him believe that she was her mother. She was protecting her against one of many who had damaged her in the past.

"Let her go. It's not her you want it's me" Regina yelled as Leopold turned to face her. Ella looked up, aware that he obviously wasn't the sort of man you could make arrangements with. Regina flicked her wrist, pushing Leopold away from the other girl.

"And who are you?" Leopold asked as he regained his balance. Ella looked up, glancing at her mother scared for what could happen next. This was a man who Regina had killed once before.

"Isn't that obvious. I am what you and others have made me." She tells him as Ella moved back from them, turning towards the light, where other figures were heading their way. Ella looked back across at her mother, who was walking closer to her husband.

"How dare you? Of course, I know what my own wife looks like. I don't like what she is wearing but she is my wife." Ella glanced at the light, as she spotted a familiar figure heading towards her. She smiled, how she had missed him.

" Ella is my daughter, she is missing one thing that your wife had, No lip scar. But guess you wouldn't have noticed that. You never knew anything really about me, you didn't look at me close enough" Regina tells Leopold as she looked across at Ella who was running towards the light, to be faced with a figure that Regina recognized.

"Ella…. Ella" The man grew closer as he held his arms out to her.

"Grandpa, I can't believe you're here," Ella yelled as she ran into his arms. Regina watched as her daughter ran into her father's arms, the father who probably now knew everything that she had done, she had killed him. She stepped back, watching as her daughter pulled him closer.

"Trust me this is not your wife, this is your wife's daughter. Now let them both go, I won't tell you again. You damaged Regina enough; I will not let you do this to Ella." Henry called out, breaking the grasp on his granddaughter, as they walked towards Leopold and Regina. Henry had changed being given the second chance had changed him, he wasn't about to watch as his Ella become the man's next victim. He lifted his arm up and punched the older man.

"I didn't expect that… Grandpa, you don't know how much I've missed you. I don't understand what is happening?" Ella asked as Regina stepped over her husband's unconscious body, not for the first time.

"Well, I think it's your grandmother…. I think she wants to rekindle what she had before. Speaking of which, have you seen her yet? We don't have long to stop her?" Regina shook her head as she approached them, holding her hand out to Ella.

"What do you mean?" Henry looked at the daughter he had lost years before, the daughter who missed out on the opportunities he had been given in with his granddaughter. Ella grabbed her Grandfather's hand.

"I'm saying that its time that you two defeated the one person who has made the darkest you could be. The person who is the reason you ripped my heart from my chest, Gina..." Regina sobbed as her father said the words, he knew, he had always known what she had done, but he had been given a second chance a chance to raise a daughter the way he always wanted. Ella was the person that now deep down Regina was. He reached out his free hand to his daughter.

" Come here. I need my girls. I've missed you both.. I've been watching you both.. You've got the relationship I never thought you would have." Henry reassured them as they walked away from the light, as it began to dim.

"Grandpa, we haven't seen her yet… Her body is still down in the vault. Mom, what are we going to do?" Ella turned to her Mom as they both pulled away.

"We do what we always do, we fight this as a family.."