Author's note: I started to write this chapter BEFORE the season 2 premiere of Once Upon a Time so some details are a different. Also, I apologize for the long wait for this update and just a warning this is A LONG chapter. Thanks in advance for reading.
Chapter 3: The mermaid and the prince
Eric had just fallen asleep when someone started to shake him awake. "What's going on?" asked Eric looking around confused.
"I hear you want to go after Regina." Said Whale from next to the bed
"Yes. I do." Said Eric
"Then come with me." Said Whale
"I don't understand." Said Eric
"A bunch of us are forming an angry mob and we're going to take that bitch down and force her to tell us how to fix this and then we're gonna kill her!" said Whale
"What about the decree from the savior?" asked Eric
"To hell with the savior. She's never dealt with the Evil Queen the way the rest of us have. She doesn't understand what that woman put us through. So, are you in are or are you out?" asked Whale
"Who are you?" asked Eric
"I'm King Arthur." Said Whale
" It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty. I'm Eric. King John's son. " Said Eric
" It's a pleasure to meet you as well. So, what's your answer? " asked Arthur
"You can count me in." said Eric "That dwarf isn't still here is he?"
"No, Doc went home. Left me in charge. " said Arthur
Eric goes to get up off the table and loses his footing and falls over. "Are you all right?" asked Arthur helping him up.
"It just felt like my left leg was made of jelly. " said Eric "I think I'm ok now."
Arthur let's go and they walk out of the room and down the hall but suddenly Eric's legs get stiff and start to fuse together and Eric just falls over and then the legs unfuse. "What's going on?" asked Eric
"It must be the magic you ingested it's screwing with your body but why a merman I wonder." Mused Arthur
"Because Rumplestilskin gave me a potion to change into one. " said Eric
"Why would you trust the most dangerous man in our realm?" asked Arthur
"Because he was taking the life force away from my true love. I had to do something. Unfortunately, when we came here I was turned back into a human and she stayed a mermaid. " said Eric
"That rumor about merpeople in the bay is true." Said Arthur
"Yes. She never made them one of us." Said Eric
With quite a bit of difficulty they made it outside where the rest of the mob was waiting. In front , standing on her car, trying to get the mob's attention was Emma. " Everyone, everyone listen! This is not the way to go about things! We don't know anything about what has been unleashed on us and if it is magic we have no idea how powerful it is or if any of the people who had the magic will have it again! Until, we find that out it's not safe." Said Emma
"Then let's go get the witch who did this to us and make it safe!" yelled Eric from the back of the mob
" And if she does have magic again don't you think she could get us before we get her? Life here isn't that horrible. If we go after Regina like a blood thirsty mob she may do something worse than this. Much worse." Said Emma trying to reason with the mob
"So what do you want us to do? Nothing? I'm sorry, Sherriff. I don't do nothing. She tried to kill both me and my true love and then that witch tore us apart with this curse and then locked me up. I can't even walk properly because of the magic I've recently ingested it keeps changing me into a merman and back again but I've been waiting for far too long and I want revenge." Said Eric "Who's with me!"
The mob roared in agreement. " As your sheriff, future queen, and savior I beseech you to think about this! Blood shed never solved anything! Killing the Evil queen is just going to reduce us to her level. Let's figure out exactly what we are dealing with before we do anything to anyone! She's taken enough away from us already we can't give her the chance to take more." Emma reasoned with the mob
"She's already taken everything from me. There is no more she can take. I'm going. " said Eric
He walked in the direction of Regina's and fell over again. Red went to help him up. "I'll go with you." Said Red.
"Thank you, Red." Said Eric
Arthur followed and soon the whole mob was following Eric towards Regina's. The only ones left were her family. "We're so proud of you." Said Snow
"Proud about what? They didn't even listen to me." Said Emma
"Still you stood up to the entire mob that's very impressive." Said Snow
"I wish they would listen though." Said Emma
"We still can make them listen. Come on." Said James following the mob with the others following him.
The sun was just starting to come up when they got to Regina's. Arthur knocked on the door and Regina answered. "Good morning, Arthur… Good morning, everyone. To what do I owe the pleasure?" asked Regina
"You know why we're here." Said Arthur "So you can cut out this pleasantry crap!"
"So, you're going to kill me?" asked Regina
"Not right now. First, you're going to suffer." Said Arthur
"Really? And how do you plan to make me suffer?" asked Regina
"We're going to imprison you the way you imprisoned me!" yelled Eric
"O, Prince Eric… I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you'd be trying to get your true love back. I mean what type of gallant prince are you? More concerned about revenge than your true love?" Said Regina
"Someone give me a sword or a gun or something I'm taking this bitch down right now!" yelled Eric lunging towards Regina but half way towards her his legs fuse together and he falls over
"HA! You can't take me down. You don't even have a leg to stand on. I on the other hand have this!" Regina does a weird magic ninja move and everyone cowers but nothing happens.
"I don't have magic…" said Regina
"Looks as if you don't have a leg to stand on either." Said Eric
"Perhaps but I'm not the one who's true love is leaving and getting re-married." Said Regina
"You're lying!" yelled Eric
"Am I? I wasn't the one who always disapproved of you being together." Said Regina
"You are the one who used our love as a weapon or have you forgotten that!" yelled Eric
"Of course, I haven't. I was never under the curse. I remember everything I ever did. "said Regina
"Then tell us how to break this curse." Said Eric
"The curse is broken. Emma broke it. No one would remember if she hadn't." said Regina
"Then why haven't we gone back? Why haven't things gone back to the way they were?" asked Eric
"Because the world we lived in is gone. It doesn't exist anymore. I've won and there is nothing any of you can do about it. Now, I suggest you go back to living the way you did before the curse was broken. O, and Eric, I suggest you go find a way to get to Ariel before the wedding ceremony. " said Regina
Eric gets up. " You're nothing but a lying serpent ! Why should I believe anything you have to say!"
"As I pointed out before I'm not the one that disapproved of a human/ mermaid relationship. That was always Triton's philosophy. It's why Ariel was so willing to trust me. Now, I suggest you do the same and figure out a way to get back together before it's too late. Now, good evening, everyone." Said Regina going to close the door.
"Not so fast, Your Majesty. " said Emma coming up behind her with hand cuffs. "You're under arrest."
Emma walks Regina to her cop car.
Red goes over to Eric "Maybe you should go to Ariel just in case what the evil queen says is true."
"You believe her?" asked Eric
"It wouldn't hurt . If it's not true the evil queen is already getting punished for her treacherous ways and if it is you can stop it from happening." Said Red
Eric simply nods . "I just hope she's not right."
Meanwhile, in the long lost fairy tale world Regina comes back to the castle empty handed. " Good evening, Your Majesty" said the mirror as she entered
" Good evening." Said Regina
"No luck with Rumplestilskin?" asked the mirror
"He's depressed about that girl. He accused me of conning her!" said Regina
"You did." Said the mirror
"That doesn't mean he should be accusing me of it! And he refused to deal so I told him she was dead and that he should get a new girl and then I left. I think I'll wait a month and then deal with him. How is our mermaid doing by the way?" asked Regina
"She found a cave to live in. She seems to be at home there." Said the mirror
"Then perhaps we should let her think she's safely at home there." Said Regina
About a month later. Regina is at Rumplestilskin's castle again. Rumple is spinning at the wheel when she enters "What do you want, Your Majesty?" he asked
"I need help with the mermaid. I want to utilize the transformation spell. " said Regina
"And if I help you what do I get out of it?" asked Rumple
"What do you want?" asked Regina
"How about that lovely necklace you're wearing." Said Rumplestilskin
"Very well." Regina takes off the necklace and hands it to him
Rumplestilskin takes a bottle from off the shelf and hands it to Regina
"Now, make sure to let the mermaid know what's she's getting into." Said Rumple
"Thank you. " said Regina.
When Regina enters her castle she goes over to the mirror which shows Ariel camping out in a cave. She touches the mirror "Ariel… Ariel… Ariel…." She chants. Ariel suddenly wakes up in a trance "Ariel… come to me. Come…" she said
"Where are you?" asked Ariel
"Just follow the sound of my voice, Ariel." Said Regina coaxing her on. Regina keeps chanting Ariel's name over and over and Ariel follows it for many hours going down into the darkest part of the ocean. She passes by eels, sea monster skeletons, then sharks start to surround her as she gets to the entrance of a dark cave. They lung at her and she swims away from them as quickly as she can as she goes into the cave. She gets to the deepest part of the cave and then suddenly they swim away as if they didn't care about her. Out of the shadows Regina as an octopus like creature comes towards her. "Why hello. I've been excepting you." Said Regina.
"Who are you?" asked Ariel
"Why everyone knows me. I'm Ursula. I help poor unfortunate souls such as yourself. I can help you with your problem." Said Regina
"How do you know about my problem?" asked Ariel
"Well, you wouldn't be here if you didn't have a problem." Said Regina "You have someone you love but you can't be with them am I correct?"
"Yes. That's the problem exactly." Said Ariel
"I've met many girls just like you. Now, what's preventing the two of you from being together?" asked Regina
"Well, he's a human and…" started Ariel
"A human? Say no more. I know exactly what you need. " said Regina "If you're willing to pay of course."
"Pay?" asked Ariel
"Well you can't have something for nothing." Said Regina
"What is this solution you have for me?" asked Ariel
"I'll transform you into a human but the spell will only last three days. The only way to stay human completely is to get true love's kiss. If for any reason you do not get that kiss the price is very dear. You will turn into sea foam. " said Regina
"Risk my life for love?" asked Ariel "I don't know."
"If you two are meant to be together you won't have a problem. You are meant to be together aren't you?" asked Regina
"Yes, of course we are." Said Ariel
"Then risking your life is the least you can do." Said Regina
"Ok, I'll do it. " said Ariel
"Wonderful now about the price…" said Regina
"I thought risking my life is the price." Said Ariel
"That's not a price, child that's a consequence. I want something more special. I want your voice." Said Regina
"My voice? How will he know how I feel if I can't tell him?" asked Ariel
"You're a woman you have other ways to show a man how you feel but you know if you aren't willing to pay then maybe you don't deserve to have a happily ever after. " said Regina
"Ok… ok, you can have my voice." Said Ariel
"Lovely…" said Regina a contract appears in her hand "Just sign right here" Ariel signs the contract. It disappears. Regina touches Ariel's throat which starts to burn and a glowing ball floats out which Regina crushes. "Now…" Regina starts chanting a very complex spell. Dark magic forms into two arms and they rip apart Ariel's tail so that it becomes two legs. The process causes Ariel to scream but no sound comes from her when she does. The magic tosses Ariel to the surface and she struggles to get to the beach. Without her tail she can't swim and starts to drown. Prince Eric was taking a stroll on the beach and sees her in trouble and dives into the water. He swims out to save her and finally gets to her. He grabs her and swims back to the shore with her. "Are you all right?"
Ariel responds by coughing up water.
"I think I should take you back to the palace. Come on." Eric and Ariel walk to the palace together.
In, Storybrooke, Eric, Red, and Charles go down to the marina. They dive under the water deeper and deeper until they get to the glass dome. No one seemed to be around and this made Eric nervous but he went into the palace with Charles and Red following behind. He searched every room of the palace but there was no sign of Ariel or anyone else. Red suddenly noticed pebbles in the trail on the ground. She pointed them out to the others and they went after it.
A few hours later in Fairytale world, Ariel is walking down a marble staircase in a fancy dress. Eric is waiting for her at the bottom. When she gets down to the bottom she curtsies and he bows "Shall we go to the dining room?" he asked she gave him her hand and they walked into the dining room together. Eric showed Ariel how to use a fork and tried to start a conversation though he had discovered a few hours before that she was mute. "I wish I knew your name. Maybe you could write it down." Said Eric.
Ariel shakes your head.
"You don't know how to write?" asked Eric
Ariel shakes her head
"Well, then I guess I'll have to teach you. We'll start right after dinner." Said Eric
Ariel nods. "Still wish I knew your name though. Maybe I could guess. Rachel, Belle…." Ariel gets excited when he says Belle so she pulls on her ear "Sounds like Belle… Danielle, Cheryl, Mariel…" she indicates him to keep going. He thinks really hard. "Ariel?" she nods "Ariel! You name is Ariel. That's very pretty. So what do you like, Ariel?"
Ariel indicates that she loves reading and exploring.
"I love those things. I don't get a chance to do much exploring. Life of a prince can be very busy. " said Eric " But I have some free time tomorrow. I was going to go out sailing. It didn't go so well when I went out on my birthday but I don't think I'll have a problem and who knows maybe you're my good luck charm. Would you like to go out on my ship with me?"
Ariel nods
"Good. We'll leave first thing in the morning. You'll love it. " Said Eric
An hour or so later they are sitting in Eric's room. "Ok, let's start with the alphabet… this is an A." he writes an A on a sheet of paper that Ariel has on a desk… A is for many things Apple and even your name… Ariel. Now you try." Said Eric
Ariel can't seem to write the A properly. "Here let me help you." Eric says. He goes behind Ariel and takes her hand. They both feel a tingle when they touch. "Looks like we have some magic connecting us." Said Eric. He then starts to guide her hand. As the lesson continues he guides her through each letter and each word that the letter starts with. Each time Eric helps guide Ariel's hand as she writes the word. After he gets to Z… "You think you can remember all that?" asked Eric.
Ariel nods.
"Good let's move on to numbers." Said Eric he was about to teach Ariel numbers when the clock struck midnight. "O, is it that late already? We have a long journey to town tomorrow we should get some rest. " said Eric
Ariel gets out of the bed and goes to a guest room. She jumps into the bed and instantly falls asleep.
Meanwhile in our world, Eric, Red, and Charles had been following the trail of pebbles for hours. It was starting to get dark now and the moon was rising in the sky and they were far out to sea away from any sort of land. So, they decided to find an underwater cave to spend the night in. After another hour of swimming they found a place but the full moon and become high in the sky. Red started turning into the wolf and broke out of her wet suit as she transformed blood started to go everywhere as the wet suit broke open and the metal air tank fell on Red's back. Knocking her to the ground. Charles and Eric pick Red up and her to the surface. As they swim sharks start to surround them. So they swim back towards the way they had come to get out here hoping to get Red to surface. When they break to the surface they look around and see a small island in the distance. They swim to it and drag Red on to the island. Eric then takes the bag they brought with them. He takes out Red's hood and drapes it over her. She turns back to normal and then he and Charles treat her wounds. Red starts to open her eyes. "Are all right, Red?" asked Eric helping her get her hood on.
"I am now. I guess, I haven't been keeping good track of the full moon. I'm sorry, Eric." Said Red
"It's all right. This is just a minor set back. We'll find her." Said Eric "It just might take a little while."
"I hope you do find her." Said Red "Everyone needs to be with their true love." Said Red
The next day, in the Long lost Fairy World, Ariel and Eric were in town heading towards the pier. Ariel was fascinated by everything they passed by. Eric would have point things out to her. She highly enjoyed hearing him explaining things . Even though to him the things were rather ordinary. Finally, they approached the giant ship. Eric escorted Ariel onto the boat. The crew had come on early to get the ship shipshape and they stopped and bowed as Prince Eric and Ariel entered the ship. The captain walked up to Eric "The crew is ready to depart whenever you are your highness and I know it isn't my place but are you sure you should be sailing so soon after the accident?" asked the captain
"Captain, there are going to be storms no matter what we do. We love sailing and we can't let one tragedy stop us from doing what we love." Said Eric. "So let's head out!"
"Let's head out!" yelled the captain.
The ship took off into the open ocean. It sailed out for quite a few hours and Ariel knew she had to get true love's kiss as fast as she could but if she couldn't talk to him what could she do? " You're bored." Said Eric
Ariel shook her head
"Yes you are I can tell." Said Eric "Would you like to take the helm?"
Ariel looked at him quizzically.
"Come on." Said Eric who grabbed her arm and took her to the helm where one of the crewmen was steering. "Let Ariel drive for a while."
The crewman nodded and let Ariel take the helm. "Steady, steady now don't want to tip us over." Suddenly Ariel got an idea she turned the wheel so that the boat tipped to the right slightly and Eric went right into Ariel knocking them to the ground and landing him on top of her. The crewman went to the helm and set it back to normal. Ariel took that opportunity to kiss him but nothing happened.
"I'm sorry, Ariel. I guess, I gave you the wrong impression. I just want to be friends right now. I mean we just met and I'm saving myself for someone." Said Eric
Ariel looks questioningly
"Well, a few days ago I was out on one of my family's other ships celebrating my birthday. Suddenly, a huge storm started and the ship was drowned into the sea. A beautiful girl came and saved my life. I'm afraid I can only be with that girl." Explained Eric
Ariel nodded sadly wishing she could tell him that she was the girl.
"I'm sorry." Said Eric getting off of Ariel. "We can still have fun while we're here. Let's dance." Said Eric
Ariel cocked her head questioningly. Eric takes her hand and they start to dance.
Suddenly, everything slows down around her. "Enjoying yourself?" asked Eric in Regina's voice. She looks up and sees that Eric's eyes have become Regina's . She gets scared. She tries to ask 'what are you doing here?' but no words come out.
"Just seeing how you're enjoying your side of the bargain. Also, come to warn you that you only have two days left so you better hurry up and get your man. O, and I saw that pathetic attempt of a kiss you just tried. The kiss won't work unless he loves you and you haven't even tried to get him interested in you. Now, my suggestion is to stop wasting time and just do it! Or some other girl will snatch him up and you'll be sea foam. " Ariel pushes Regina away and she leaves Eric's body causing his eyes go back to normal. She runs to the captain quarters.
Eric follows after her when he enters the captain quarters he finds Ariel crying. "What's the matter?"
Ariel points to the door to let him know she wants him to get out.
"I can take the hint. I'll go tell the captain to turn us back around so we can go home" said Eric