Author's note: Last night's Once episode. Holy. Crap. That's all I can say. So. Freaking. Sad.
Chapter 23
Snow quickly locates a bow and slings a sheath of arrows over her back, already dressed in a simple shirt and pants. As she stumbles from the room, she accidentally slams her arm against the wall, but in her haste to exit she barely notices the flare of pain. All that's running through her mind is that Emma is in danger.
Her next stop is to locate Red, who she knows has lots of experience tracking and could really be of some use, but after fifteen minutes of failing to find her friend, Snow gives up. She's wasting time and with every passing second Emma could be farther and farther away.
She knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Emma is in trouble, that she desperately needs her help. Who those two kidnappers were, Snow does not know. All that matters it that they abducted her friend.
Snow bends down and touches the ground, spying the familiar look of boot prints and what appeared to be a large mark on the ground, clearly the trail of something being shoved along the ground. "I'm coming Emma."
Emma's head is pounding as she starts to come to. They must've hit me on the head with something. She decides. A roar of anger escapes when she tries to reach her hand up to feel throbbing lump on her head but finds that she's bound to a large stake, her hands roughly tied behind her back. "Son of a bitch." She hisses angrily as she takes in her surroundings. She is a pit of some sort and as far as she can tell in the middle of the forest somewhere.
"Well, well, well." A sarcastic female voice says from Emma's right. "Look who's finally awake?"
Emma whips her head to the side to see a brunette with short, choppy hair staring at her. Just like her, this woman is bound to a similar stake. "Who the hell are you?" She blinks.
"Wow. They weren't kidding. You really don't know who I am."
"Enough with the mind games." Emma sighs. "Just tell me who you are."
"Regina." The woman answers.
"How do I know you?"
Regina pauses. "We have a, er, complicated history. Really too much work to explain." She explains dismissively.
How helpful. Emma begins to struggle futilely against the tight bonds, cursing when she fails to untie the knots. "What kind of a Boy Scout tied these?"
"Don't bother." Regina says. "I've tried six ways to Sunday. It's hopeless."
Emma falls back against the stake. "Maybe if I try to untie you and you me?"
"That would work, except oh wait!" Regina's voice oozes sarcasm. "These stupid wooden poles are stuck to the ground."
"So what, we're just going to give up?"
"No." Regina huffs. "If I just concentrate I can use my magic to free us."
Emma doesn't even blink at the mention of magic. Of course a fairytale land would have magic. "Well, hurry up then."
Regina throws her a glare. "Not helping." She squeezes her eyes shut but after a long moment opens them again. "Ugh. Damn this unstable magic."
"Great." Emma grouses. "Where the hell are we, anyway? Why are we here?"
"These two complete imbeciles," Regina starts, her face a mask of barely disguised fury. "They kidnapped me intending to steal my magic."
Emma frowns. "Ok, but why I am here?"
Regina throws her an impatient look. "Did you not hear me? They want to steal magic using this dagger they stole."
"Slight problem. I don't have any magic."
"Yes you…oh right. Memory loss. You, Ms. Swan, have forgotten it but being the product of true love possess magic."
"No I don't." Emma protests. "That's something I think I'd remember."
"Well obviously it's something you don't." Regina counters. "You have magic which is the only reason you're stick in this hellhole with me."
"That's right." Says a voice. Emma's head snaps up to see a man and a woman heading towards them, sinister smirks on their faces. Her kidnappers, she realizes.
"I see you're finally awake." The man says as he approaches.
"Look! Listen. I don't have any magic or whatever." Emma immediately begins to protest. "So you can let me go."
"I don't think so, Emma." The woman says. "Your memory loss is just preventing you from remembering. You do have magic and from what I overheard you're quite powerful. Which makes you very valuable." She pulls a sharp dagger out of her pocket and holds the pointy tip up to Emma's neck. "Very, very valuable."
Emma spits in her face. "I don't know what you're talking about but you better let us go. Someone knows I'm here and I've already called for backup."
The man snorts. "Sure. Sure they know you're here. In the middle of the dark forest." He looks up at the rapidly darkening sky. "It'll be midnight soon." He says triumphantly to the woman.
"What happens at midnight?" Emma asks. Not like she doesn't already have a suspicion.
"We take this." The woman holds up the dagger. "And stab you in the heart. Both of you. And then drink your blood to absorb your magic."
"And you die." The man finishes gleefully.
"You sick son of a bitch!" Emma shouts in the direction she saw the man and the woman, Greg and Tamara, she learned, disappear. "Come back here and fight like the cowards you are!"
"Enough!" Regina snaps. "You're giving me a headache."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Emma counters. "I didn't realize that you didn't care that we're about to die!"
"Because it's so much help for you to shout into the empty forest." Regina says dryly. "I know this forest; there's not gonna be anyone there."
"So what are we supposed to do? Just die here?"
Regina turns away. "Does it look like we have any other option?"
"No." Emma shakes her head. "I refuse to give up. I can't just die like this, at the hand of two idiots."
"Hate to break it to you but that's exactly what's going to happen."
"No!" Emma snaps. "I have a son out there who needs me. A mother who doesn't remember me. No."
"Does it look like I don't know that? My son needs me too. But it's hopeless. This is my price for everything I've done." Regina sighs. "At least Henry's safely with Gold. Although that's not saying much. And if your parents ever find a way to get back, well then he'll have a family. An annoying, insufferable, overly optimistic one, but a family."
Wait. Henry? "Did you say Henry? As in…"
"Yes." Regina confirms. "My-our son. Mine by adoption and yours by birth."
Emma breathes shakily. Henry. The son she doesn't remember and will never see again. Though she knows rationally that she's met him before that doesn't make her feel any less guilty for giving him up. It's like all of the guilt has come rushing back. She turns to Regina, a tear making its way down her cheek. She is not shocked to find that Regina looks just the way Emma feels. "Just tell me one thing...was he happy?"
Regina nods right away. "Yeah. You made him very happy."
"Good." Emma replies. "And thank you for taking care of him, for being his mother. I can tell by your face that you really love him. I'm sure you're an amazing mother."
"Yeah. I do. And of course I am."
Something unexpected happens just then: both Emma and Regina reach out and clasp their hands together in an attempt to comfort the other. Both are resigned to their death but are buoyed by the thought that Henry will be loved.
Midnight comes much too fast, and soon enough Greg and Tamara are climbing back into the pit, the dagger clenched in Tamara's fist as both approach with wicked grins on their faces.
"Three minutes." Greg says as he looks at his watch.
Three minutes. There were only 180 seconds until their death. Emma can feel her breaths coming in short rapid bursts. She'd never imagined that she'd die like this. Maybe being hit by a car or cancer or something, but never at the hands of two weirdos wanting to steal her magic. She looks over at Regina, who is gazing steadily ahead and vows to be as strong as her when she dies.
"One minute." Greg announces. He and Tamara begin to untie Emma and Regina from the wooden stakes, keeping their hands bound, their hands firmly gripping them to prevent them from running.
Just then, there is a loud scuffle coming from the forest, an arrow whizzing past them, inches from Tamara's head that she barely ducks away from, and a battered looking Snow White comes running out, a second arrow pointed at them.
Author's note: Well there's Snow. What's she gonna do?
Btw, I made up all of this magic absorbing, blood drinking stuff. It's completely unrealistic, I know, but it serves the purpose of this story.
