Opening her eyes was more difficult than she expected. It had only been a few hours, but after not sleeping for days, it was much needed rest. Still, it wasn't nearly enough, and waking up was hard. But David was shaking her, and she knew she had to get up, even though she didn't understand a word of what he was saying. Emma's vision was still blurry, and she was disoriented from the lack of light. It was dark out - time to find Henry. She got to her feet and sleepily looked around for Regina, who was standing just behind David.
"Sorry, honey, but we've gotta move," David told her.
She nodded weakly and marched on with them down what seemed to be a never-ending pathway to nowhere. It was hard to see, but the moon was enough light that she was able to find her way through the trees. In the next clearing, they found themselves faced with a deadly silence, and they all looked around, suspicious of the lack of noise.
"Something's not right," David announced, as if no one else could tell.
"They're here," Regina breathed, forming a ball of fire in her hand as three lost boys emerged from the forest. "What do you want?" she asked.
"We're here to bring a message. Pan wants you off the island, and he wants you off now. If you don't leave in the next 24 hours, he's going to kill Henry. If you do leave, Henry becomes a lost boy like us, and nobody dies."
Emma jumped at the boy, grabbing his neck and throwing him up against a tree. The boy just laughed, but Emma wasn't finding it very funny. She squeezed her hands around his neck tighter, nearly crushing his throat.
"Don't push my buttons, kid. Where is my son?"
Behind her, David and Regina each faced off with a lost boy, the two of them asking the same question. But Emma was tuning them out. Her vision was going red, and her hands were hot with vengeance. She could kill this boy right here, with her bare hands. He was unarmed (surprisingly) and weaker than her (but not by much). She had him in a compromised position, and that was enough to give her the upper hand. No one was screaming, so she figured David and Regina had the other two boys pretty much taken care of, which left her alone with this one. She thought about killing him, about watching his throat snap, but she released her grip so he could answer her.
"You'll never get to him. Pan owns this island. If he wants to hide something from you, you have no hope of finding it," he said. "Anyway, I'm just the messenger. Don't take your anger out on me, Miss Swan. It's not my fault you didn't love your boy enough to keep him safe."
A grin spread across the boy's face, and that was enough to snap something deep inside of Emma. If she'd looked behind her, she would have seen that the other two lost boys were gone and Regina and David were both doubled over, holding their knees, completely out of breath. But she didn't look, and she didn't see, and she thought she was still alone, so she lunged at the boy and squeezed his neck harder and harder until the boy choked out a laugh, completely unfazed by the threat.
"Emma, don't!" David screamed, pulling her away from the lost boy and holding her back against his chest. "This isn't how we do things."
"I'll do it," Regina interjected, stepping towards the boy, holding a ball of fire.
"Regina, dammit, back off!" David barked. "Let him go."
She wasn't sure why, but she obeyed and stepped away, letting the boy run back into the forest laughing. Perhaps it was because she was too tired to argue anymore. It was easier to keep her mouth shut and just go with the flow than it was to bicker about whose plan was best. After all, her method - magic - hadn't worked. She figured she might as well give someone else's plan a try. Anything to find her son.
"What the Hell!" Emma screamed, breaking free. "Why would you do that?"
"Because we're not going to save Henry by killing lost boys."
Emma started to cry, hot tears streaming down her face. David hurried to her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"It's okay, honey. We're gonna find him. Don't worry."
And what if we don't? Regina thought. We stay on this island forever? But she said nothing. She was still withdrawn, unwilling to converse. As they marched on in the dark, Regina kept her thoughts to herself. The girls walked behind David, with enough space between them that he couldn't hear them talking.
"Does he know?" Emma asked nervously, after a while of not speaking.
At first, Regina was startled and didn't answer, but eventually, she managed, "No."
"Does anyone else know?"
"No."
Emma felt a wave of relief wash over her, but the uncomfortable feeling that Regina had seen still lingered. Regina refused to say anything more. Her eyes were dead, lifeless with grief, but Emma saw none of it. Instead, they walked on in silence.
