For what felt like an hour already, Emma, Mary Margaret and David were being towed by rope across their land that used to be called home. Now it was nothing but dead grass and hills and mountains and sand. There were two unfamiliar women who Mary Margaret and David had never seen before in their entire lives. David already tried fighting the ropes and untie himself to untie his family earlier, but he failed and had no other choice but to be lead.

"What is this place?!" Mary Margaret shouted from behind, breaking the silence. No one had talked the whole way there because they were all too tired from being dragged. It went silent again.

"Our home." The woman closest to the back with long, black hair answered from above on her horse. It sure didn't look like it. Just ahead, there was a long bridge of sand separating the waters surrounding them. It looked like it lead to an island far away, covered in fog. More walking to do for them.


It took them another hour, it felt like, to get to where their land must be. It was nothing but wooden huts on stilts and forest. Surprisingly, there weren't just the two people who were leading them that were alive: the whole island had people working to survive. David and Mary Margaret looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: it was impossible that there are still people living in this world, since the curse was supposed to cover the entire land.

The women cut the long rope that was leading the three and just left their hands tied.

Everyone in the village looked up and dropped what they were doing as David, Mary Margaret and Emma, plus the other two unknown women entered the camp.

"It's like they're refugees..." Emma stated.

"I think they are." David answered.

Suddenly, the black haired woman turned to them with a sharp look in her eyes as she tied her horse to a post. "We're survivors."

Out of nowhere, before David or Emma could stop her, Mary Margaret turned around and kicked down the blonde haired woman behind her.

"RUN!" She screamed. The three started running, but before they could escape, something knocked Mary Margaret down with full force, knocking her out unconscious. David and Emma heard a thump behind them and turned around to find Mary Margaret on the ground.

"Mary Margaret!" They both shouted as they went back and knelt on the ground beside her. David turned her over and saw that her eyes weren't open.

"Mary Margaret!" David shouted.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Emma looked up and yelled at the two women who approached them.

"Take them to the pit." The black haired woman ordered three men as they dragged David, Emma and the unconscious Mary Margaret away and threw them into a small, jail-like room with rock walls.

"BE CAREFUL!" Emma screamed as they threw Mary Margaret in with them with more force than necessary. The guards closed the door as Emma and David knelt beside her.

"Mary Margaret!" David shouted again. "Come on, wake up.

"Can you hear me?" Emma asked. No response. She looked up at David for an answer, but before he could say anything, he heard a noise coming from behind him. He stood up and turned around.

"Who's there?" Just then, he saw a silhouette of a woman standing in the corner of the room.

"Hello." A soft voice answered as a woman slowly stepped out of the darkness.

"Who are you?" Emma asked from behind David.

"A friend." the woman stepped closer towards them, and David could finally see who it was. She was definitely NOT a friend.

Emma stood up, and David slowly backed up towards Emma, shielding her. Emma looked confused.

"Emma, whatever you do," David said. "Do not trust this woman."

"Why-?" Emma started, but the woman interrupted.

"Hello there, James." The woman said. Apparently, she still hadn't heard the memo about the twin-change. His name wasn't actually James; that was his twin brother. His real, shepherd-boy name was David. "And who is this young lady? Did you finally give up on that filthy rag of a wife you had there?"

Angry at the way she insulted Mary Margaret and disgusted at what she thought who Emma really was to him, David spoke up. "Don't talk about Snow like that! She is nothing like that filthy rag you call your face. And who this woman with me is none of your business! How are you still here and what are you doing here, anyway?"

"David, who is thi-?" Emma started, but David put his hand up to silence her.

"This is someone way worse than Regina." He softly told her. Emma's eyes widened a little. He turned back to the woman and gave her a stern look. "Answer me, Cora."

"So harsh, are we?" Cora laughed softly. "What happened to poor little Snow, huh?"

"Answer me!" David was getting impatient. He didn't care what Cora was doing here, but he did care about how there were so many survivors from the curse. If there was a way to get away from the curse, he would've done anything to get him and Snow and their precious little newborn girl to safety.

Cora's eyes then traveled to somewhere behind Emma and David. They both looked where she was looking and noticed that Mary Margaret was starting to wake up. David quickly rushed towards her, with Emma not far behind.

"Mary Margaret?!" David helped her up, then gathered her in his arms. She suddenly looked to see who was behind all of them, and noticed Cora.

"You." Mary Margaret said as she broke away from David. She stepped closer towards Cora, but David held her arm, in case she would walk up to her and punch her or something.

"Why hello, Snow," Cora said, smiling. "Long time, no see."

"What is this place? Where are we?!" Mary Margaret asked, with as just as little patience as David had.

"It's a little island our captors think of as their haven." Cora finally answered.

"Haven?" Emma asked. "From what?"

Cora turned to Emma. "The world's dangerous. What's left of it, anyway."

"How long are we gonna be down here?" Mary Margaret asked, searching for a way out along the rock walls.

"Yeah, we didn't do anything wrong." Emma joined. David nodded in agreement, but then looked at Mary Margaret, remembering that she did kind of kick her way out of being "prisoner".

"Neither did I." Cora replied. Mary Margaret paused from searching along the walls for an opening and waited.

"Then why are you in here, Cora?" She asked finally, turning around and giving up on the walls. She stepped forward, away from the rocks.

"My daughter and the curse she cast sent me here." Cora answered. David noticed in Emma that it looked like a light bulb had just turned on in her head.

"You're... you're Regina's mother?" Emma asked, taking a step back.

"Yes, but you have nothing to fear from me." Cora replied, still her voice smooth and soft, almost sounding too... persuasive. Emma wouldn't buy it.

"How can we know that for sure?" David's voice boomed loud, growing more and more impatient, wanting out of this place with Cora in it.

"ENOUGH!" The four looked upwards toward the hole in the ceiling of the room, and saw a long rope drop down. "Our leader requests an audience."

They all looked back and forth between each other, then one by one, they started to climb up the rope.