A/N: Here we come to the final chapter in this part of the story. I have it divided up into three acts. Act I focused on what happened to Emma. Act II will focus mainly on Regina's actions after Emma is discovered.
As always, Emlovesyouu beta'd this chapter into its current form. I claim no ownership of the show or lyrics. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.
Enjoy!
And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows
20 November 2014
Creak
Squeak
Groan
Regina eased her way across the old farmhouse's porch, blessing her decision to change into hiking shoes for the added dexterity and quietened footsteps. Tromping around in her heels would have sounded like a military division marching through the house. If Emma was still in the farmhouse, the last thing she wanted was to spook her. The creaking floorboards were bad enough. When another one squeaked in protest under her tentative step forward, she cursed the farmhouse itself. Whether it was Zelena or Emma, they had spent far too much time trying to gain silent entry. "When I drag you out of here, Emma Swan, I'm going to fireball this godforsaken house to the ground," she hissed.
The doorknob turned without making any noise, and she put as much pressure on the door itself so that the hinges stayed quiet. She almost coughed on the stale air, choked with dust and decay that permeated the foyer.
To her immediate left was a study with weathered bookcases holding nothing but cobwebs. A desk sat in the middle of the room, remarkably still supporting a pen holder and antique lamp. No signs of Emma or really anyone having used that room in what looked to have been decades, if ever. The dark curse worked in ways she still had trouble figuring out.
Back across the foyer was a formal dining room. The long, rectangular table was set with table service for six, as if standing at the ready for a dinner party. In the corner sat a wood-fired stove that still held two white ceramic pots and one light blue.
Searching the rest of the main floor turned up nothing but a dusty kitchen and powder room. "Of course that would have been too easy to find her on the main floor," Regina muttered. She made her way to the stairs, keeping her eyes on the floor the whole time. The house had seen more use than ever before when Zelena was in residence, but enough dust had fallen since her death that Regina was hoping to see indications of Emma's movements within the house.
The stairs gave her no more answers than the main floor. Either Emma had learned to use a broom or she was deliberately obscuring exactly the clue Regina was trying to find. The thought made her shake her head. Of course Emma had swept the floors on purpose – she'd spent years tracking down people who didn't want to be found, so she had to learn a few tricks of the trade.
The upstairs was exactly as she remembered from their search after taking care of Zelena. A mixture of weathered paint on the woodwork, exposed brick giving it a more rustic appearance, and threadbare carpets. No signs of Emma. It didn't even appear as if the beds had been used. The whole house gave off the impression of a place that hadn't seen any residents beyond her unlamented half-sister.
Regina blew out a frustrated breath. She had been so sure Emma had taken up residence in the farm house, but nothing so far told her that the blonde had ever been there. Before she could poke around the main floor any further, her cell phone buzzed. Fishing it out of her pocket, she saw a text from Belle informing her that there were signs that Emma had been to the clock tower.
With a growl, she flicked her wrists and teleported to the tower, appearing directly behind the librarian, who still had her phone in hand. "You rang, Ms. French?"
The other woman jumped almost through the roof. "Oh my gosh!"
"Sorry," Regina apologized with a slight shrug, "I should have announced myself. Your text said you found something that made you think that Emma has been here?"
Catching her breath, Belle accepted the apology with a nod. "Yes, actually. There's a beanie of hers in the corner," she pointed, indicating, "and the face of the clock, the part that opens, isn't as dusty as the rest of the window area. She's not up here right now, but I think she's been here."
Scanning the small rotunda, Regina saw the signs Belle pointed out. She was right. Emma had been here, at least once. Huffing, she put her hands on her hips. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. This is too big for one person to cover adequately. I'm going to go back to the farmhouse. Before I go, I'll put a barrier spell on the library building. That should stop her from both climbing to the top of the tower, and with any luck from going down into the mines."
"What about me?" Belle wanted to know.
"If you could stay up here and keep an eye on the town that would be most helpful. This is still the best vantage point in Storybrooke," Regina requested. She called on her magic and transported a pair of powerful binoculars. "These should allow you to see as far as the woods and the harbor."
"Thank you, Regina. I'll do my best," promised Belle.
About to teleport herself back to the farm house, Regina stopped when her phone buzzed again, this time from Hook on his ship. She made a mental note to talk to Rumple someday about exactly what he put into his Dark Curse to make it so that Storybrooke had some of the best cellular reception in the world.
"I need to get out to the Jolly Roger. Let me know if you see anything from Emma," she said.
With Belle's promise, she changed her mind's eye from the farm house to the ship, and after a swirl of purple smoke, she was on its rocking deck. Unlike the librarian, Hook merely cocked a jaunty eyebrow. "Majesty," he greeted.
Regina nodded in response, too busy fighting off flashbacks from the last time she was aoard the Jolly Roger. Neverland. Henry missing. So much danger. Shaking her head, she forced her mind back to the present. "What was so urgent that needed my physical presence, Hook?"
The eyebrow went ever higher, but the smirk faded. "Right, to business then. I haven't seen anything of Emma on the docks or shoreline. Nor has Tink," he added, looking up to the crow's nest where Regina indeed saw the fairy, "but she was here at one time."
Rolling her eyes, Regina tried to avoid incinerating the pirate where he stood. "I know she was here once, pirate. We all sailed to Neverland and back, remember? Then the two of you were…whatever it is you were doing. Of course she was on board."
To her immense irritation, Hook actually chuckled. "No, I mean she was aboard recently." Gesturing with his hook, he led her to a corner of the foredeck. "Here. She must have used our distractions on land to hide here for a while."
She saw the evidence that someone indeed had been there. A lavender-colored sleeping bag that clearly didn't belong to the pirate lay rolled up in a corner. Trapped in the folded opening was a tangle of blonde hair. "Not Tinkerbelle's, I assume?" Regina asked dryly.
Hook shook his head. "Not likely."
She sighed. "Okay. We're getting a better idea of her movements. Belle said she'd been up in the clock tower, too. Since I can't be here to hold your hand, here's what I'm going to do: I'll put up a barrier spell on the ship that will allow everyone except Emma to board and leave."
Gesturing around with his one good hand, Hook looked at her with a small degree of petulance. "Why can't you do that for the entire harbor?"
With an eye roll, Regina drew herself to her full height, not an easy feat considering she was still hiding her wobbly knees. "Casting spells takes physical energy. I could conjure you an apple right here and it wouldn't feel any more taxing than walking up a flight of stairs. Teleporting and barrier spells are much worse. I've already teleported twice in the last thirty minutes. If I cast a barrier spell over the entire harbor, I'd be exhausted for several hours. Blocking this ship will be bad enough"
Her tone was enough to keep the pirate from making any snide replies. With a long-suffering sigh, she raised her hands to enact the barrier spell. The Jolly Roger shimmered for a moment in the afternoon sunlight, appearing almost ethereal, before it faded. The spell taxed her strength and it was several moments before Regina trusted her legs enough to support her. "There. Now there is no way Emma Swan can come aboard your ship. Keep scouting the shoreline, but I would suggest focusing on the harbor. Let me know if you see her," Regina instructed.
With Hook's silent nod, she made to teleport, but once more her phone buzzed. "Damn it all!" she cursed, reaching for the device. Ruby. Asking for her presence. Cursing people that didn't seem to be able to act without her, Regina shoved the phone back into her pocket and called her magic to teleport her once more, not even sparing Hook a backward glance.
As she rematerialized on the street in front of the bed and breakfast as requested, Regina staggered back. The amount of magic she'd expended had drained her resources worse than she had expected. She looked around for the werewolf, finally spotting a flash of red waving from inside the building.
She trudged into the lobby, willing her tired body to keep upright. "What is it, Ruby?"
The werewolf gave her a curious glance, but when Regina shot her a glare, shrugged it off. "Emma's jacket. I found it in one of the rooms upstairs when I came back for some coffee and Granny asked me to take a look around. There was a bunch of other stuff up there, like toiletries and some old clothes, so she might have been staying there for a while."
Regina groaned, but refrained from showing the weakness of putting her head in her hands. Various sightings of Emma had her running in circles, not to mention expending most of her magical capabilities. "Let me guess: she's not there now."
"No, sorry," Ruby apologized, "Have you had any luck yet?"
"Not at the farm house, clock tower or Hook's ship," replied the mayor with a shake of her head, "I swear it's like the woman has completely vanished into thin air."
Ruby echoed her groan, sitting down on one of the chairs. "Think, Ruby! Think! Where would I go if I were Emma?"
Watching the younger woman try to think like Emma Swan, Regina was struck by the depth of the town's devotion to Emma. Not a single person she'd seen today, certainly not the waitress in front of her, was less than totally committed to finding their missing Sheriff. Which unfortunately didn't provide any answers as to why she'd gone missing, possibly to cause herself great harm.
Her phone startled her out of her thoughts once more. After wearily plucking it from her pocket, Regina saw she had a new text from Robin. When she read the message, her blood ran cold. "Gotta run," she told Ruby, calling her dwindling magic once more to teleport.
Come to the cemetery as soon as possible. It's about Emma.
By good fortune, she appeared next to a very tall headstone – she seriously needed to talk to Rumple about the curse if he somehow had the foresight to include an empty cemetery to make Storybrooke appear even more like a normal American town – that she leaned on heavily for a few moments. If the matter wasn't as urgent as saving Emma, she would be in her own home right now, lying on the couch or, preferably in bed, while her magic recovered.
Forcing back her fatigue, Regina took a deep breath and rose to her full height, looking around for Robin and his Merry Men. After a brief turn, she spotted them in the last place she would have imagined. A cluster of the men stood around her mausoleum. The ever-present feeling of dread grew exponentially.
She strode up to the group, hoping her weakness wasn't as apparent as it felt. No such luck. "Regina? Are you all right? What happened?" Robin asked, his face full of concern.
Waving him off, Regina took a steadying breath. "Nothing to worry about. Just expended a lot of magic in the last couple hours and need to recover. Which I will do when we find Emma, and not before, so what did you need to show me?"
He gaped at her for a moment, but evidently decided there was nothing to be said. Without a word, he turned and gestured.
Not having seen the building for the men standing in front of it, Regina's first glimpse of the devastation was up close and personal. The angel statue which had stood for decades was crumbled into pieces on the ground. The strong wrought iron doors had been wrenched almost entirely off their hinges, the metal bent at sharp angles as if an ogre or giant had happened on the structure and decided to rip the entrance apart. "What the hell happened here?"
"No idea. We were searching this part of the woods and found this. It wasn't anyone from Storybrooke, we know that."
"Well so do I," she retorted, "I put a barrier spell on this building so strong that even Rumpelstiltskin himself would have been hard-pressed to break it."
Robin scratched his neck while the men shuffled around uncomfortably. "So, what could have done this?"
Regina's eyes grew huge. "Emma," she breathed, "if concentrated enough, the Savior's light magic would have been strong enough to break the spell and open the building through sheer brute force, but I didn't think she was able to call her magic that strongly by herself yet."
"I guess she is," the former thief hazarded.
Determination forming, she set her jaw and looked around. "Take your men and keep searching the woods. I have to go down there and see if she's stolen anything." They tried to protest, offering to stand guard, but she waved them off.
Without a look, she walked with more confidence than she felt into the small structure. The truth was that if Emma could have broken her barrier spell, she probably had gone into her vault and stolen essentially anything that her heart desired.
Regina's heart started to pound at the implications of a possibly suicidal Emma Swan with access to one of the most powerful collections of magical items and potions assembled outside the Dark One's own vaults.
She gulped, and walked down the stairs.
Something was off.
To anyone else, the vault would have looked like it was undisturbed. Boxes of books, artifacts, and trinkets lined the walls where she had left them, while her locked cases of potions were essentially where they were supposed to be.
Essentially.
Her eye for details picked out the marks in the dust where different containers had been resting before someone had moved them. They were small, but there. A ring here, a square there. She was more certain than ever that Emma had rifled through her collection.
For the Savior to have broken her barrier spell, and as violently as the doors had been wrenched open, she had to have been in more control of her magic than Regina had ever seen her. For the same Emma who'd penned the letter about to have that much control over magic that powerful…
Her blood ran cold at the thought.
They had to find Emma Swan.
Now.
Regina had never teleported herself anywhere when her magic was as depleted as it was, but finding her crypt's barrier spell broken so violently and the contents rifled moved up the deadline for finding Emma safe and sound. To make things easier on her, rather than teleport to the yard in front of the farm house or even to its front porch, she called into her mind the layout of the living room and appeared on the ratty couch. Normally she wouldn't have allowed herself to even come into contact with something so old and threadbare, but with her energy nearly depleted, it felt like the finest mattress in the world.
Her eyes fluttered shut in a moment enjoying the pure bliss of silence.
Until it was broken.
"I figured I'd find you here," came the familiar accented voice from the front door.
Still too drained to even groan, Regina allowed a brief whimper to escape. "What do you want, Robin? I thought I told you to watch the woods."
Slow footsteps moving steadily into the living room belied a swagger. "My men are out looking. I knew you were coming back here, so I came here directly. You've been so busy with this search for Emma Swan that we haven't had the chance to spend any time together."
She forced herself to open her eyes and sit up. "Emma's life is in danger, probably from herself. Not to mention that Gold and the Snow Queen have to be looking for her, too. Finding her is my only priority right now."
He sat next to her and slid an arm around her shoulders, using a mockery of comfort to hide his true intention. "I know, and that's important, but she's not going anywhere, right? She wouldn't leave her son behind. So why don't we spend some more quality time together? Roland is with the Merry Men at camp, so we have all evening to ourselves."
Throwing him a sidelong glare, Regina pointedly removed his hand from around her. "I don't have time for that. The only person I've ever called a best friend is in mortal danger. You can wait a little longer for some physicality."
He sighed, frustration oozing from his expression. "I know she's important to you, but do you really think she'd kill herself? She probably just wanted a little extra attention."
"A little extra attention? She's personally saved this town several times, not to mention how many times she's saved my life. The very least I can do is put my all into returning the favor, even if I have to save her from herself," her voice began to crack, but she was past caring, "I've failed her too much over the past few weeks. I can't – I won't – fail her again."
Robin sat forward, rubbing his forehead with the heels of his palms. "How long is Emma Swan's ghost going to hang over our relationship, preventing us from moving forward?"
She gaped at him. "As I recall, you were only too happy to run off when Emma Swan's ghost brought back the ghost of your own wife. You were pretty damn happy then to keep honest to your vows, if I recall. Now that your wife is frozen solid – alive only because of me, I might add and you're welcome for that – you want to rekindle our relationship while I'm trying to save someone's life? What am I, the nearest warm body? Any port in a storm?"
"No, no, Regina! You know that's not true!"
"I'm starting to wonder about that. You keep promising devotion, but whenever the rubber meets the road, you're going back to Marian with vague words about responsibility and vows. Well, you know what? You're right. You have an obligation to your wife. And now, you need to go fulfill that obligation. Get the hell away from me, out of this house, and stay with your men in the camp," she spat the words like bullets, rising to her feet and balling her hands into fists to prevent her magic from obliterating him from existence.
Robin matched her stance, but as always he backed down. Without another word, he shot her a parting glare and left the house, slamming the door.
With the reverberations of the door around the house, Regina exhaled. One less problem for her to worry about was all well and good, but it still didn't erase the big problem on her hands. Still bone-weary, she flopped back down on the couch, intending to take a short nap to recharge herself and her magic.
Regina closed her eyes, willing the oblivion of slumber to overtake her, but her mind refused to calm, going over everything that had happened. After chasing around Storybrooke
She finally rolled over, cursing her inability to find sleep. When her eyes opened, they landed on a door that she hadn't noticed before. There seemed to be a tiny amount of light coming through the gap at the bottom. Curiosity growing, Regina remembered searching the main and upper floors before getting called on her wild-goose chase. She moved to the door, fatigue forgotten, and carefully pulled it open, trying to eliminate noises from the rusty hinges. Before her was a dusty, dark stairway leading down.
As she moved down the stairs on the balls of her feet, she noted the near-total lack of noise. The old wood should have creaked like Granny's knees, but the stairs didn't announce her presence. The ambient light decreased with every step down so that by the time she reached the bottom, Regina couldn't have seen her fingers in front of her face. Normally darkness never worried her, but something about the stillness of her former sister's former basement was unnerving. Feeling her magic growing, she risked expending a bit of it on a small fireball in her hand.
When she saw what lay in front of her, the shock alone put out the fire. Regina fumbled blindly for a light switch, tripping over buckets and boards until she finally located a pull string. The feeble glow of a 40-watt bulb was only just strong enough to banish the darkness.
Mouth gaping in horror, Regina took in the sight of Storybrooke's Savior, lying still as death on a pile of old rags in what looked like a long-disused animal cage. Emma Swan was a still as death, without the rise and fall of a breathing chest to give hope. When she lunged for the cage's door, a barrier spell stronger than she had ever felt flung her backward. Regina saw the faint traces of glimmering white fade away, confirming that there was a dome of protection over Emma's resting place.
Knowing there was nothing she could do, Regina stumbled blindly up the stairs, tears falling so thickly she didn't even note when the basement's blackness gave way to the light of the main floor. She cuffed her eyes, clearing her vision just enough to get her phone out.
Before sending out a mass text message instructing everyone to meet her back at Granny's, Regina called Snow. In any other moment of her life, she would have gladly given any reward to be able to break her former stepdaughter's heart with bad news. After seeing Emma, Regina would have promised everything she had except her son to avoid the coming conversation.
Snow answered on the first ring. "Regina? What is it?"
Regina tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it was an exercise in futility. "Get everyone to Granny's," she croaked, "I found her. I found Emma."
A/N: Thus ends Act I. I hope this wasn't too traumatic. Fear not! There is a long road in front of us but all is not lost!
Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated :) Many thanks to those who have stuck with me on the first part of this journey.
Act II is in the drafting process and is titled "The Hero's Way Back".