3.05: And the Moon Grows Dimmer
Neverland—Present Day
Emma's journey back to Neverland was painful—far worse than the journey to Fin had been. A freezing sensation clawed at her shoulders and made Emma think for a second that the beast from North Fin had grabbed on to her and was hitching a ride to Neverland. Fortunately, when she finally opened her eyes there was no sign of a monster.
However, what she did see was perhaps even worse. Rather than appearing in the fairies' valley, Emma found herself in a dark room. A strange muffled noise greeted her and she saw what appeared to be several bodies tied up around the room. Upon closer examination, she saw that it was her four companions.
"Mmm mmm mmmmmmm!" Mary Margaret bleated through her bonds. Her hands were held above her head by ropes that stretched to the ceiling and forced her to remain in a standing position.
Emma quickly ran to her mother and started untying her. Before she could finish, she heard the sound of someone approaching. Emma frantically looked around the room for a place to hide and saw a heavy wooden chair in one corner. She slid behind it and peeked out to see who had captured her friends.
An elderly man walked into the room and surveyed his captives. "So, are you ready to talk yet?"
Mary Margaret, David, Regina, and Samuel all looked at him with wide and clueless eyes.
"Not yet? Well, we'll see if another hour of hanging there will loosen your tongues."
As soon as she was sure that he was really gone, Emma scampered out from behind the chair and started untying Mary Margaret again. The situation brought to her mind the time in Storybrooke when she found Mary Margaret bound and gagged in Jefferson's house.
"Ooh! Hurry up Emma before they come back!" Mary Margaret whispered once Emma took her gag out.
"Who was that? And what are you doing here?" Emma asked her as began untying David.
"They're natives. When we were waiting for you in the fairies' valley, smoke suddenly started to fill it. Thinking that there was a forest fire, we quickly climbed out of the valley and were caught by the natives. They had started the fire in order to drive us out so they could capture us."
"But why?" Emma asked.
"It's an old trick," explained Samuel once he was free. "A fairy dwelling cannot be seen if the fairies don't wish it to be seen, but the natives probably watched as we disappeared into the valley, which meant that they knew where our general location was. From there, it was simple to build a fire and smoke everyone out."
Mary Margaret nodded in agreement. "We even carried Regina out because she was feeling ill."
By that time, Regina was the only person left to untie, and Emma noticed that her hands were fastened so that they were almost touching the ceiling.
"Her sickness prevented her from struggling like the rest of us," David explained to Emma, "Which is how they were able to tie her so far up."
Emma dragged the chair over so she could stand on it and reach Regina's bonds. She quickly untied the ropes and the two women fell to the floor together.
"Oomph!" Emma grunted as all of Regina's weight landed on her. The fall knocked the wind from her and she laid on the floor in a daze, which she quickly snapped out of when Regina's hand connected with the side of Emma's head.
"Ouch! What was that for?!" Emma asked accusingly as she pushed the brunette off of her.
"That's for making me feel so ill whenever you leave!"
"I left to get our son back! And I obviously came back to you, right?!"
"Keep it down or they'll hear us!" Mary Margaret hissed at the pair. But it was too late; the door quickly opened and the elderly native stood in the doorway with a spear in his hand.
Emma held her hands up to show she was unarmed. "We don't want any trouble here. My friends and I just want to leave."
He called a younger man into the room and they both pointed their spears at the five. "We know you came to Neverland in order to stir up trouble by killing the Pirate King and replacing her with the dreaded previous King, and now we want some information."
"We don't know anything," Mary Margaret gasped.
"We'll see about that!" The younger man grabbed Regina, dragged her into the center of the room, and held a knife at her throat. "You!" he nodded at Emma, "Tell us all you know about Jones' plans. If you stay silent, she gets it." He emphasized his point by caressing Regina's neck with the knife.
But a different thought was distracting Emma. "What makes you think that her life is worth more to me than information...not that I know anything!" she quickly added.
He looked surprised at the unrelated question. "But you care for her, do you not? I saw the way you glanced at her just now when you were on the floor."
Emma bristled. "Yeah it was a glance of loathing! In case you didn't notice she had just smacked me in return for untying her."
Mary Margaret lightly elbowed Emma. "This isn't the time to argue about that."
Emma looked at the two men pleadingly. "You have to believe us. We had nothing to do with the death of the Pirate King and none us knew about Hook's plan."
They looked at her closely. "Very well, I believe you," the older man said. "But what are you doing in Neverland? And why are you traveling with him?" He pointed at Samuel.
"I'm helping her find her son," Samuel said indignantly.
"He was taken from me and brought to this world," Emma informed them. "Do you know anything about it?"
The two men looked at each other knowingly. "They're looking for the witch," the younger one said to the other.
"What witch? Do you know something?" Emma asked excitedly.
The younger native nodded. "Just a few days ago, our scouts watched as two strangers carried a boy into the witch's lair. We did not know who the boy was, but if your son is missing, it was probably your son."
Regina broke out of her captor's grasp. "Was he all right?! We must go to him now!"
"It is a whole day's journey away. But we will take you there." He nodded at Emma and said "You remind me of someone, someone who used to walk between worlds and bring peace."
David looked at her proudly. "Well, Henry did say that she was the savior."
Regina rolled her eyes. "All right, are we going or what?"
The Enchanted Forest—In the Past
A heavy fog hung over the darkest section of the Enchanted Forest and shrouded the trees in its veil. All was silent in the woods because humans and animals tended to avoid the area—the former because of rumors of a resident evil, and the latter because of known certainty of a resident evil.
Suddenly, a tiny speckled bird broke through the cover of the fog and fell exhausted to the ground. It had flown many miles that night in order to put as much distance between itself and Rumpelstiltskin as possible, and as it lay sprawled on the floor of the forest, it slowly started to transform back into a dark-haired woman.
The silence of the woods was disturbed by a slithering sound as an old woman wearing long dragging robes carefully walked through fallen leaves toward the young woman lying broken on the ground. "Shh...such anguish for such a young body," she crooned.
The woman who had previously been a bird startled in surprise at the voice. "Who are you? Are you the witch that people say lives around here?"
She nodded. "That I am. But although they are cowards, I know that you are not. And from the look of that animal transformation spell I would say that you also know much about magic."
The younger woman looked down at the ground in shame. "Yes, I do know magic. But not enough magic. That imp was able to defeat me. I want to learn more magic so I can become more powerful."
The old woman fixed her with a beady stare. "Stay with me for a bit. I will heal your body and teach you more magic. You will call me Ursula. And you are?"
"Vanessa. My name is Vanessa."
XXX
Ursula brought Vanessa to her lair to heal. Although Vanessa had heard many rumors about the evil witch during her stay in the Enchanted Forest, she was relieved to find that Ursula treated her with nothing less than kindness. Every day she found herself growing stronger and more determined to know more about magic.
The memories of her most recent encounter with Rumpelstiltskin seared through her mind every time she thought of it. Her thirst for power had led to her attempting to marry King Leopold by fooling his naive bride-to-be, Regina. She had told Regina that she had a grandmother who knew magic and then she had given Regina some bogus magical herbs, all so Vanessa could take her place in marrying Leopold. However, the Dark One had put a stop to that. So now every day she spent with Ursula the witch, she tried to learn more about Ursula's powerful dark magic so that the next time she went up against someone like Rumpelstiltskin, she would win.
"Where do you think you'll go when you're strong enough to leave here?" Ursula asked her one day.
"I think I will travel to another world called Atlantica. I've been there before, and there's no magic there, so I will easily become the most powerful." Vanessa spoke casually, but she could tell by the way Ursula's eyes lit up that the older witch was interested.
"Atlantica? You know, I've never been anywhere outside of the Enchanted Forest, but I would love to travel."
"You should," Vanessa murmured. "There's so much magic in the Enchanted Forest that you can never get anywhere in life without someone else bringing you down. But Atlantica is full of weak and naive people...(similar to Regina)," she muttered to herself, "And besides, when I was there I discovered traces of magic which show that magic used to exist there, so I should have no trouble using my power and imposing my will there at all."
"Mmm...very interesting," Ursula said. She attempted in vain to keep the excitement and interest from her voice, but she had nothing to worry about: Vanessa was too caught up in her own thoughts to pay any attention to the older witch. "Tell me how you discovered Atlantica," Ursula commanded.
"It was the first world I traveled to after I...left my homeworld. But I soon left Atlantica to come here to the Enchanted Forest."
"Why did you leave Atlantica?"
"Because there wasn't any existing magic there. And the person who I was searching for went somewhere with magic."
Ursula sat up in surprise. "You were searching for someone? Who were you searching for?"
Vanessa looked appalled that she had let that piece of information slip. "No one! Well, at least I think he's dead now. Whatever he is, I don't care anymore. Now I'm more interested in power, which is why I want to go back to Atlantica. I think I have learned enough magic here in the Enchanted Forest to become a force to be reckoned with in Atlantica."
Ursula smiled. "Now you're speaking my language."
XXX
After a month of healing and learning, Vanessa said goodbye to Ursula and set out on her journey to Atlantica. The previous night, Ursula had taught Vanessa the only transformation spell she knew, which involved trapping the spirit of the intended form. This usually meant killing the person to separate the spirit from the body, which had horrified Vanessa, although she hid it from her mentor. That's probably why she's called an evil witch, Vanessa thought. Besides her ordinary speckled bird form, the weaker human transformation spell that she was accustomed to using needed an article of clothing, such as when she asked for Regina's necklace. Although not as permanent or effective as Ursula's spirit-stealing spell, Vanessa thought that her method sounded easier and safer for both parties.
Once she had walked far away from Ursula's home and was deep in the heart of the Enchanted Forest, Vanessa closed her eyes and stretched out her fingers in front of her. While keenly concentrating, she started searching for the nearest magical fault line. After several seconds of silence, she suddenly felt and heard a faint humming in the air. Hmm...not too far away. She opened her eyes and resumed her walk, but this time changed her course slightly. After she had walked half a mile, she again closed her eyes and concentrated. This time she was able to pick up the humming right away. Spreading her fingers, she started examining the air in front of her for the invisible crack in the air which was her doorway to Atlantica. And just as she had been taught, when she found it she stuck her hand and let a sea of images wash over her: of a white castle next to the shore, of its dark-haired prince, of a crater under the sea where a golden castle had once stood. Satisfied that it truly was the doorway to Atlantica and not some other realm, Vanessa then began prying the magical fault line apart so that there was a shimmering gap in the air. When it was big enough, she stepped through it and away from the Enchanted Forest.
Neverland—Present Day
"We will go by longboat," the elder native informed them. They were standing in front of a row of cabins on the bank of a river, one of which was where Emma's friends had been tied up. A crowd of people were grouped around them and staring curiously, although Emma noticed that everybody stayed away from Samuel.
"When will we get there?" Mary Margaret asked the elder native. His name was Falkner and he was the leader of the people who lived in the line of cabins.
"We will travel all day, stop to rest at night, and then we will be at the witch's lair before noon tomorrow."
Emma groaned with dismay. What she had originally thought would be a quick jaunt to Neverland to retrieve Henry was quickly turning into an epic adventure.
The natives loaded the longboats with supplies (including many weapons, Emma noticed uneasily) and then they boarded and were off. The longboats easily sliced through the water and assuaged some of the travelers' doubts about the transportation method. Toward midday, the four allies noticed strange plumes of smoke coming from the forest.
"What is that?" David asked Falkner.
Falkner shuddered. "It is the fire of those we don't speak of."
"The witch?" Regina asked.
He shook his head. "No, we call them the Lost Ones. They are not of this world. In fact, they've been rejected from every world."
"Well, we're not of this world either," Mary Margaret stated.
"But they should not be here. While your purpose is to rescue a child, their purpose is of evil intent."
"Are they pirates?" Emma asked hesitantly.
Falkner looked her squarely in the eye. "They do not belong to the Pirate's Fortress, but they have been known to occasionally commandeer a ship if it suits their purpose, so perhaps they can be called rogue pirates."
Emma thought back to the time on Prince Eric's ship when Hook had told her that he had been a rogue pirate. She wondered if he had been working with the Lost Ones.
"Let go of me! Please!"
Emma whirled around as she heard the plea for help only to watch as someone was thrown overboard. "Who is that? What's going on?" she asked Falkner. Then she saw with horror that the person struggling in the river was Samuel. The river was swiftly sweeping him away from the longboat. "Samuel!" Emma cried with desperation. She ran to the side of the boat and grabbed a coil of rope.
"What do you think you're doing?" Regina sharply asked her.
"Someone has to save him, and I don't see any other volunteers."
"If you jump in, the river will carry you away," Falkner warned.
"That's what the rope is for," Emma said stubbornly. "I made a promise to him that I'm not going to break." She quickly tied one end of the rope around her waist and the other around the railing of the longboat. As she jumped in, she heard Regina's anguished cry of "Noooo!"
Icy water slammed into her and knocked her breath away. She immediately felt the tug of the rope around her waist as the boat pulled her onward. Luckily, the same water that was dragging Emma onwards was also pulling Samuel forward at the same speedy pace. She attempted to swim toward him but was rebuffed by the waves separating them.
"Emma, help me!" Samuel yelled.
Emma's heart lurched in her chest as she heard his cry. With fear inflecting his voice he sounded just like Henry. Her strong legs propelled her closer to him but she was still unable to reach his outstretched hands.
"Emma, the rocks!" Mary Margaret yelled.
With a great effort, Emma craned her neck around to look in the direction they were heading. Sure enough, jagged rocks stuck out of the water next to the shore, and Samuel was headed right at them.
No! This can't happen. Emma gave one last determined attempt to rescue the boy while logically knowing that it was hopeless. Unbelievably, at that moment she felt a force launching her toward Samuel, which gave her enough momentum to reach him and wrap her arms around his waist.
"I got him!" Emma shouted.
David, Mary Margaret, and Regina pulled the rope in with the aid of a few of the natives. Emma and Samuel were heaved over the side of the longboat and fell spluttering to the floor.
"Emma, are you all right!?" Both Mary Margaret and David helped her to her feet and then sandwiched her in an embrace.
"Yes yes, I'm fine." She brushed her parents off and then strode angrily over to one of the natives. "What the hell was that about?!" she yelled at him. "What did you throw him in the river for?"
The native, a tall and muscular hunk of a man, glared at Emma. "He is the product of an evil coupling."
"Evil coupling?" Emma asked with confusion.
"His father was a pirate," Falkner the elder leader explained, "While his mother was one of us. She was from this tribe, actually."
"And that's a problem why?" Emma snarkily asked. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Regina was shielding Samuel from the natives by standing in front of him.
"Such bonds are forbidden; they are seen as unnatural."
"But I thought you wanted peace between the pirates and the natives. Isn't that why you so upset when Ruth died?"
Falkner nodded his head in acknowledgement. "I am a forward thinker, but there are many here who hate the pirates and want them driven out. To Ragnar here—" he gestured at the muscular native who had thrown Samuel overboard "—the idea of such a bond is disgusting."
"So he threw him overboard?!"
Falkner bowed his head in apology. "I cannot always control my men."
Seeing that she was nowhere near being finished screaming at the men, Mary Margaret and David grabbed Emma's arms and pulled her over to quietly sit with them. They weren't really feeling up to getting kicked off the longboat.
Storybrooke—Present Day
"Some more coffee, Leroy?"
Leroy shook his head and continued to stare moodily out the window of Granny's Diner. Granny shrugged and went to wait on more customers. As mayor, she had decided that the best thing she could do for Storybrooke was to let the town run itself, and so she had resumed care of her diner. When a citizen of Storybrooke came forward with a complaint, she would listen and make a decision, possibly with the aid of a town meeting, but otherwise she was content serving the people pastries and coffee.
Leroy looked sadly out the window at several nuns scurrying through the rain with boxes of belongings and supplies. The Storybrooke nuns were changing locations due to a sudden whim from Mother Superior, and they were now moving all the way across town. This unfortunately meant that Leroy would no longer pass Sister Astrid every day on the street.
The bell on the door chimed, signaling somebody's arrival. "Morning Leroy. Want to help me with something?" It was Belle and she was carrying a backpack.
He grunted. "Not really."
Belle sat down next to him and looked wistfully into his eyes. "Please? It's really important for the sake of the town."
He sighed. "What is it?"
"It's a riddle I need you to help me solve. Once we solve it we can cloak the town from intruders." She pulled the notebook paper with the deciphered spell out of her bag.
Leroy read through it with confusion:
To forever hide
These two must coincide:
One needs peace:
Five I possess—my first is the shape of a scream
My second is hungry and fed by a stream
My third and fourth—vowels before the rest
And my fifth is the end of a town but the start of a nest
Two needs death:
Two sounds—one is the first noise of a salutation
Then there's a common word for painting and music fun
Bring them together
And say:
Masred rae a twees takisme
Lla remasred tusm akawe
Ton tihw erast ro a higs
Lla ginths eufaultib tusm edi
"Well, it beats me what this all means. Why are you asking me anyway? Why don't you go ask someone smarter?"
"Because I'm asking you, and I believe you can help me."
Granny hustled over with her coffeepot. "Mornin' Belle. Coffee?"
Belle looked up with concern. "Is Ruby still feeling poorly?"
"What do you mean? I thought she was staying with you!" Granny said with alarm.
"Me? She's not with me!"
"What did I tell you," Leroy said placidly, "She's turning into a wolf. She's probably out roaming the streets right now searching for a victim."
The two women glared at him.
"That attitude is not helpful," Granny scolded Leroy.
He shrugged. "It's the way it is. By the way, do you want to help Belle with her important riddle for saving the town?"
"Important riddle for saving the town?" Granny glanced at the riddle. "My, that sounds interesting. Unfortunately I have more customers I have to wait on. But just call me over if there is anything particular you want me to look at." She walked on to the next table.
"I'm outa here," Leroy announced as he stood up.
"Leroy, please stay," Belle pleaded, "There's no one else here that I really know and—oh look! It's Astrid!"
The sister had just walked into the diner.
"Astrid, over here!" Belle called.
Leroy ducked behind the table. "Ah Belle, don't call her over here. We haven't really talked since the curse broke."
"Why, are you shy? Oh look, you're turning red. How cute."
Leroy blushed even more as Astrid made eye contact with him as she made her way over to their table. She nodded at them. "Belle, Leroy."
"Oh Astrid, we were just trying to solve this riddle, and when Leroy saw you come in he told me that you were awfully clever. Could you help us?"
Astrid turned as red as Leroy when she heard the praise. "Well, Mother Superior wanted me to quickly return with her beverage, but" she dropped her voice to a conspiring whisper "She's so busy right now with the move that I doubt she would even notice my absence."
Belle grinned. "Great, then pull up a chair."
She did so and the three bent over the manuscript. Belle noticed that with Astrid there, Leroy made no more attempts at leaving.
"My first is the shape of a scream, my second is hungry and fed by a stream...what does all this mean," Astrid asked as she read.
"It's a magic spell," Belle explained. "Mr. Gold gave it to me so I could cloak the town from intruders."
"Are you supposed to find all these things? A scream and something that's fed by a stream?"
Belle shook her head. "I don't think it is objects we're looking for. It says 'My third and fourth—vowels before the rest,' which makes me think that the riddle is spelling out a word."
"Two words!" Leroy interjected. "And the first word has five letters."
"Why do you say that? Oh, because it says 'two must coincide' and 'five I possess.' Very good Leroy!" Belle said excitedly.
"Yep," Leroy said smugly while glancing at Astrid to see her reaction.
Rather than looking impressed, Astrid was rereading the riddle with a look of horror on her face. "Stop! We can't enact this spell! If we do it'll destroy the town!"
"Why do you say that?" Belle asked her.
"Because it says 'And my fifth is the end of a town.' This will destroy Storybrooke, not protect it!"
"But Astrid, I thought we had agreed that it was just spelling out a word."
"Yeah," Leroy tried to reassure Astrid, "It's not spelling out the destruction of our town. See—the line concludes with 'but the start of a nest,' and the end of town and the start of nest is the letter 'N.'"
"N!" Belle quickly wrote the letter down in her notebook and then drew four horizontal lines in front of it. "If Leroy's right, then we just have four more letters to go for the first word!"
"Are you sure it's safe?" Astrid asked hesitantly.
"I promise. After all, Mr. Gold gave it to me."
"Belle," Leroy hissed into her ear, "I thought you were trying to convince her to help us, not scare her off."
Belle ignored Leroy and said "Let's move on. Now what letter is the shape of a scream?"
"That's easy," Astrid said, "It's the letter 'O.'"
Belle obediently wrote the letter 'O' down. "And what's hungry and fed by a stream? Would that be the sea, or 'C?'"
"Only two letters left for the first word!" Leroy exclaimed as Belle wrote 'C' down. In the excitement of solving the riddle, he had forgotten his customary surliness.
Belle's paper now looked like this: O C _ _ N.
"Now just the two vowels that come before the rest. Let's see, the first two vowels are 'a' and 'e', so that means—"
"It spells ocean!" Astrid squealed. "We did it!"
"We did half of it," Belle corrected. "We still need to figure out what the second word is. There's two sounds, and one is the first noise of a salutation."
"A salutation? Is that like howdy?" Leroy asked with a baffled expression on his face.
Belle and Astrid giggled. "Somehow I doubt that that is what the riddle is referring to. It probably means something like 'hello.'" Belle wrote the letters 'he' down in her notebook underneath O C E A N. "And now a common word for painting and music fun. What would that be?"
"Um, hobby, pastime, entertainment," Astrid listed off.
Belle frowned. Somehow none of those seemed to fit. "Hmm, I don't know. Why don't we ask Granny? She is the mayor, after all."
They called Granny over to their table. "What's another word for art and music?" Belle asked her.
"Hmm...art and music...could that be like classical music?"
Belle looked down at the manuscript in confusion. "Oh, I said it wrong; I meant painting and music.
Leroy stared at Belle in astonishment. "That's it Belle, art!"
"Art?"
"Music and painting are both forms of art! And combine it with 'he' and you get 'heart!'"
"Ocean and heart." Belle looked down at the riddle. "Could that be it? If that's right, then it says that we need to combine them together, and the ocean needs peace, and the heart needs...death."
"But that sounds like sacrifice!" Astrid said with alarm.
"Belle, if you're planning on sacrificing someone then I'm afraid I'm going to have to step in and stop you." Granny informed her before walking away.
But Belle was too busy reading the riddle again with newfound horror to listen to a word Granny said. If what they had deciphered was true, then the cloaking spell that Mr. Gold had given her was more deadly than she had thought.
Atlantica—In the Past
"Someone is here to see you, mistress."
The heavy wooden door opened with a loud clang and two people walked into the cell: a guard and a dark haired woman. The woman looked around with some interest. Although the room was large and richly furnished, it was still undoubtedly a cell meant to keep its inhabitant from fleeing.
"Mistress?" the guard said uncertainly.
A shape stirred lethargically on a couch in the corner, and from underneath a pile of blankets appeared a woman with flaming red hair. Vanessa quietly gasped. When she had first met Ariel years ago during her first visit to Atlantica, she had been especially taken with Ariel's hair. And even years later, her beauty had not diminished.
"What does she want?" Ariel asked quietly.
"Err, she says she was sent to get your measurements...for your wedding dress fitting or something."
"Already?" Ariel mumbled, so softly that Vanessa almost missed it.
"I'll just be leaving you now. I'll be back in twenty minutes." The guard walked uncomfortably away.
"I don't really care what my dress looks like or if it fits, so you might as well leave now," Ariel told Vanessa lifelessly.
Vanessa lightly chuckled. "Has it really been so long that you don't recognize me, old friend?"
Ariel quickly sat up. "Could it be? Is it...yes it is! What are you doing back here?!"
"I've come to save you from this marriage."
"Really?"
Vanessa nodded although guilt coiled in her stomach. She hadn't felt any remorse at all about tricking Regina, but Ariel was a different story.
"Oh Vanessa, when you were here so many years ago, you were my only friend and the only one I could trust. I even kept the necklace you gave me as a gift!" She held up from around her neck a necklace with a seashell on the end. "And then, when you unexpectedly left me, I had no one!"
"I'm sorry I left you, Ariel. It's just that I wanted to help you, but I had to learn more magic first. But now that I know a lot of magic, I can help you out of this marriage."
Before Ariel could start crying tears of joy (it looked like she was about to), Vanessa quickly launched into her plan. "So I will disguise myself as you and marry him, and meanwhile you'll be escaping with the aid of a cloaking spell."
Ariel's face fell. "That's it? That's your plan?"
"I've gotten really good at cloaking spells lately!" Vanessa quickly said. And that was true: when she was with Ursula, she had learned a lot more about cloaking spells.
"Well..."
"It's your only chance. Do you want out of this marriage or not?"
"I do want out. But I don't want you marrying him!"
Vanessa waved her hand dismissively. "I'll be all right. Trust me, I've dealt with men before, and it's not like he has any magic."
"No, there's no magic in this world."
Vanessa smirked as she remembered the first time she had met Ariel. She had been so alarmed at the displays of puny magic that Vanessa could do that she had first thought that the brunette was an angel.
"All right, all you have to do so that I can take your form is you need to give me your necklace."
"The one you gave me?"
"That's the one." Rather than presenting Ariel with a bogus potion that needed her hair, Vanessa had decided to directly tell her that the necklace was needed for the transformation.
Ariel looked crestfallen.
"Please, Ariel? I'm doing you a big favor."
"Well, all right, it is just a necklace after all, and Eric's given me plenty of them." She unclasped the necklace and handed it to Vanessa.
Vanessa slipped it around her neck. "I estimate that half of our twenty minutes are gone, so we're going to have to be quick." She closed her eyes and concentrated, and suddenly Ariel was looking at her mirror image. "And now for the cloaking spell... Ton tihw erast ro a higs, lla ginths eufaultib tusm edi."
Ariel looked down at her arms, and saw to her surprise that they had disappeared. "You really have gotten better at magic."
"Yes, and that cloaking spell will actually work, too. Unlike the one I put on Regina."
"Who?"
"Never mind. I'm just happy that I'm only cloaking you. If I was cloaking an entire city, the amount of magic needed would demand a sacrifice."
Ariel looked at her as if she wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. "I don't think I want to know what you're talking about. Anyway, what do we do now?"
"When the guard comes back, I'll tell him that he must not have locked the door securely when he left because you finished with the measurements early. And when he's standing there looking confused, you will sneak past him and out of the castle."
Ariel looked excited. "That sounds good. I can't wait to put this plan into action!"
Neverland—Present Day
Regina watched as the sun slowly set below the horizon and the moon made its obligatory appearance. She was fascinated by the moon in Neverland—it seemed to be at its brightest early in the evening, and then slowly grew duller and duller until it was replaced by the sun in the morning. In a way, the phenomenon plucked at her romantic side—she imagined that the moon was a woman clad in silver gowns and that the surrounding darkness was slowly suffocating and killing her throughout the night. And then, just as she was about to die, a hero in golden armor leaped into the sky and breathed light into her so that she might rise again another night.
"Because the sun doesn't need any help to shine, it can do so on its own. But the moon needs assistance..."
"You're doing it again."
Regina looked at Samuel in annoyance. "Doing exactly what again?"
"You know, looking dreamily up at the sky and talking to yourself."
Regina looked at Samuel as if she wasn't sure what to think about him. In a way, his tendency to make petty and irritating remarks reminded her slightly of Henry. This was further cemented by the fact that he only made the remarks to her; never to Emma, Mary Margaret, or David.
"Well, as I'm letting you sit here with me and not with the natives who want to kill you, I would think that you would graciously refrain from being so annoying." Regina told him icily.
He sighed and said dramatically "Oh great sun, please save me before I vanish completely, for I am the moon!"
"What's this about the moon?" Emma suddenly asked. She had been sitting on the other side of Samuel, lost in her own thoughts, but their sudden thread of discussion caught her interest.
"Regina's comparing herself to the moon—she must be having an identity crisis!" Samuel quickly shot out.
"I am not!" Regina cut in. "I was simply remarking on how every evening the moon has started out being extremely bright, and then throughout the night it slowly grows dimmer."
Emma's face scrunched up in thought. "Hmm, kinda the opposite of what's happening in Fin. The moon's getting brighter and brighter there."
Regina looked at Emma with curiosity. "You never did tell us what happened there."
"Henry wasn't there, so I left."
Regina sighed with exasperation. "Well, as we're currently looking for him here, I had already gathered that."
Emma shrugged. "Well, there's not much to tell. I never did find Samuel's mother either."
He looked at Emma with anxious eyes. "You're going to try again, aren't you? You just have to find her!"
Emma just shrugged again, but she privately doubted that she would ever have a chance to save Samuel's mother. By the time they arrived at the witch's lair and rescued Henry, there wouldn't be enough time to go back to Fin and rescue her before the moon struck the town.
"Outpost ahead!" a native bellowed.
The longboat started angling toward the side of the river, and Emma saw that there was a large wooden cabin there. "Is this where we're spending the night?" she called over to Falkner.
He nodded and said "Early in the morning we will leave, and if everything goes right we should be at the Witch' lair before noon."
They dropped the anchor next to the shore, and Emma and her companions followed Falkner off of the boat and up to the cabin. He knocked heavily on the door, and after a minute it was opened by Graham.
Atlantica—In the Past
"I just can't figure out what happened to you!"
Vanessa (who looked like Ariel) laughed flirtingly and leaned in to kiss Prince Eric on the cheek. "How many times do I have to tell you? When I was locked up in that room, I finally realized that had been behaving childishly, and that if I really wanted to do what was best for my people, I would marry you."
Vanessa had been living disguised as Ariel for the past week. The guards had been extremely hesitant to let her out of the room the first day when she had pleaded that she had changed, but her insistent appeals finally wore them down. Once she was free, she simply located Prince Eric and told him that she wanted to marry him as soon as possible. He hadn't believed her at first, but finally even he gave in to Vanessa's loving embraces and caresses.
"Oh, Eric darling, what are we going to do today?"
He looked at her dreamily. "I was thinking that we could go on a picnic by the sea. It'll be lovely!"
Vanessa forced herself to smile and nod. This is stupid. How many picnics do I have to go on before I can just marry him and become the princess? "Ooh, that does sound lovely! I'll go pack some things." She slipped away from him and into her bedroom. Reaching under her bed, she pulled out a small metal tin. Inside the tin was an herb she had brought with her from the Enchanted Forest that would magically restore her strength. This was needed because wearing the necklace and sustaining the Ariel illusion quickly sapped her magical strength.
She opened the tin and stared with frustration at the amount of content. It was running low, and she soon would need to take a secret trip to the Enchanted Forest to stock up on more. In order to preserve her strength and the herb, she took the necklace off and changed back into Vanessa. She didn't need the transformation when she was alone. Then she stood up, placed the metal tin in a leather satchel, and walked over to a basin full of water to wash her face.
"I knew you were a different woman!"
Vanessa screamed and knocked the basin to the ground. It broke and sharp shards scattered over the floor. She ran over to the necklace and put it back on.
"No! Don't!" Eric ran over to her and lifted the necklace back off of her. "I love you!"
Vanessa stared at him like she thought he was crazy. "You love me?! You don't even know who I am!"
"Yes I do. I've spent a whole week with you, and it's been a dream come true."
"But, during the week you thought I was Ariel?" Vanessa started backing away from him, and in the process cut her foot on the glass shard.
"Oh, darling, you're hurt. Don't move. Let me carry you to the bed."
This is unreal, Vanessa thought as he gathered her in his arms and picked her up. Not only was Prince Eric not bothered that she was a stranger disguised as Ariel, but he seemed to be treating her even kinder than usual.
"You don't know what it's like being betrothed to a woman who doesn't want you." He looked at her with pleading eyes. "I had to spend my entire life suffering because of the knowledge that I would eventually be trapped in a loveless marriage when all I desire in life is True Love. And then, suddenly, the woman who loathed me suddenly started to act as if she loved me. No, don't speak! Let me finish!" he said to Vanessa, cutting her off. "I don't care who you really are or where you come from. Just know that over the past week I have fallen in love with you and I'm willing to spend the rest of my life with you. You will be my queen, and perhaps eventually, when the time is right, we will reveal your true identity to the country."
Vanessa continued to stare at him completely flabbergasted. He seemed to be speaking desperate words of madness to her. But still, if he wanted her to be his queen...
"Very well, I accept," she said to him with a smile.
Neverland—Present Day
"This is so boring! There's nothing to do here. There's not even a TV!"
Tamara just about lost it that time. She had been sitting around in Neverland (a magical realm, of all things!) for far longer than she had planned and Henry's annoying and persistant comments were starting to give her murderous thoughts. She slowly picked up a knife.
"No! You can't do that!" Greg hastily whispered to her. He glanced around the room to make sure that Wendy was nowhere nearby to have witnessed the scene.
"I was just going to threaten him," she muttered darkly.
A few months earlier, Tamara and Greg had been doing their normal job of killing vampires in Sunnydale when their boss, Wendy, asked them to take a special mission for her. Both had been honored to have been approached by Wendy. After all, her female ancestors (all named Wendy) had always been the leaders of the magic-exterminating club, and only very special people got to actually meet the current Wendy.
She had told them of a town in Maine called Storybrooke where magic ran free.
"Do you want us to nuke it?!" Tamara had asked with much excitement in her voice.
Wendy had told her that that wasn't necessary. Instead, Greg would first go as a spy. He was to be on the lookout for a young boy of about 10 or 11 years of age. Later, Tamara would join him and help him kidnap said boy. They were chosen because both had connections to Storybrooke—for Greg, his father had disappeared there, and for Tamara, her 'fiancé' had relatives there (although he didn't know it). Wendy told them that kidnapping Henry was vital to her plan of ultimately destroying magic.
Tamara and Greg went along with this without any questions. But then came the weird part: Wendy instructed them to bring Henry not back to headquarters, but instead to a certain location in Neverland where she would be waiting. They did all this, but instead of being rewarded and released from the mission, Wendy was now making them stay on as baby-sitters for Henry while she waited for some kind of signal.
"You know," Henry said to Greg, "I once watched this movie called 'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.' I wasn't supposed to be watching it, but I watched it anyway. Anyway, Hansel and Gretel were all grown up, and they hunted down witches like Wendy and killed them."
"She not a witch," Greg said while gritting his teeth.
"Yes she is! She just doesn't want you to know that. Anyway, my mom got angry when she found out I had watched the movie. She pretended she was angry because of the naked scene, but I know why she was really angry: it was because she can do magic like a witch."
Tamara rolled her eyes. "Just shut him up already."
"I wasn't supposed to know that she could do magic, but it said so in my storybook," Henry continued. "But it's okay now, because now she's choosing to use her magic for good."
Greg jumped up. "You know, I think I hear Wendy approaching, and you are supposed to be in bed now." He grabbed Henry and started pulling him into a different room.
"She chose good," Henry told Greg firmly as he was being manhandled. "What will Wendy-witch choose? When the time comes, what will you and Tamara choose?"
Greg ignored him, left the room, and locked the door behind him. "Soon he'll be gone," he reassured Tamara, "And then we can leave this place."
Outside the lair, a woman adjusted her seashell necklace and then swallowed an infusion of strength-giving herbs before entering the hideout. Maintaining full-body transformations such as Wendy's form for long periods of time always had sapped her strength.
Neverland—Present Day
Both Emma and Regina gasped in unison at coming face to face with the man they once had feelings for (albeit twisted feelings in Regina's case). Then Emma realized it wasn't Graham, just someone who looked very similar to him. For one thing, this new man was tanner and slightly taller than the Storybrooke sheriff had been.
"Who...who are you?" Regina asked throatily.
"This is Geoffrey," Falkner introduced them while giving Emma and Regina weird looks. "He is one of the caretakers of the outpost." A beautiful young woman draped in what looked like a tiger skin then joined them at the door. "And this is Lily. She also helps run the place."
"Good evening, Falkner. What brings you to this desolate stretch of the woods?" She fluttered her eyes prettily.
Falkner lowered his voice. "We're running a rescue mission. The Witch has captured their boy."
Lily looked at him with concern. "But won't the Witch be angry if you disturb her."
"For far too long we have lived in fear of her. Now is the time to show her that she does not control us." He walked past the pair and into the cabin with Emma and friends following. They were in a large entryway. Emma stood aimlessly around while Falkner busied himself with giving his men directions about the upcoming day. While she was waiting for further directions from Falkner, Lily approached Emma.
"You don't look like you're from around here," Lily said while twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
"Um, no we're not," Emma said dumbly. She had suddenly noticed that Lily's eyes were the unusual color of violet.
"You must have come from really far away." Lily stepped closer to Emma, which happened to give her the opportunity to look over Lily's shoulder. She saw that in a far corner of the entryway, Geoffrey, the man who greatly resembled Graham, had similarly engaged Regina in conversation.
"You look like you need a nice rest," Lily whispered into Emma's ears.
"Umm..." Emma murmured. She watched as Geoffrey said something that made Regina laugh, and then saw him brush a strand of hair away from Regina's eyes. The scene unfolding before her eyes, coupled with the sensation of Lily's breath on Emma's neck, was making her body feel odd.
"I think you should go lie down now. I'll take care of you."
"Um no thank you, I'll go by myself!" Emma shouted much louder than she meant to. She broke away from Lily and ran to the center of the room, all while staring at Regina. Emma's shout had interrupted Regina's and Geoffrey's conversation, and Regina was staring back at Emma with a mixture of alarm and confusion on her face. With unexpected humiliation in her stomach, Emma turned around and ran into a room behind the entryway. Mary Margaret and David were sitting in the room.
"Emma, there you are!" David said excitedly, "We were just saying—"
"Emma, what's wrong?!" Mary Margaret interrupted. Concern was evident upon her face.
"Nothing is wrong!" Emma snapped. "I'm just tired. I need to go to sleep. Where can I find a room where I can be alone?!"
Mary Margaret and David both looked at her in bewilderment. "Well, Falkner told me that there were rooms for us down that hallway. I'm sure you can find one that suits you." Mary Margaret pointed down a hallway. "Really, is there something wrong?"
"No, everything's fine, thanks." Emma ran down the hallway and stopped at the door on the very end. It was unlocked, so she stumbled in and sat on the bed. Why do I feel this way? Emma wondered. Her stomach was twisting and making her feel physically ill while her mind just felt dazed. After thinking the matter through several times, Emma decided that her body had had an allergic reaction to Lily's perfume while her mind and heart had been jealous that Geoffrey had talked to Regina and not herself. Yeah, that's it. She started feeling better about the situation, so she crawled under the blankets and prepared to go to sleep.
After several minutes, she heard the sound of voices in the room next to her. It sounded like the voices of Regina and Geoffrey. Although she tried not to listen in, the thin walls thwarted that objective.
"You are so beautiful. I just love looking at you."
"Don't just look at me; hold me. It's been so long."
Emma quickly grabbed a pillow and held it over her head. Her mind was racing. She and Regina had never discussed their marriage because there had not yet been an opportunity, and Emma had assumed that although restrained by their magical bond, when the time came they both would find someone different to love. But Emma couldn't believe that Regina was breaking the vow of monogamy so soon without asking for Emma's permission or caring about appearances. She forced herself to think about Neal and how Henry wanted them to have a castle together, and then she thought about Lily and how willing she had been, but both times, her mind wandered back to Regina.
Suddenly, a sharp knock on the door startled Emma out of her misery. She looked up from underneath the pillow and was shocked to see Regina standing in the doorway.
"Already in bed, Miss Swan?"
"Argh...what are you doing here?!" Emma attempted to leap out of bed only to get her foot caught in the sheets which made her clumsily fall to the floor.
"Have you already forgotten that we are married? There aren't enough rooms in this cabin for us to have different rooms."
"But what about..." Emma gestured to the wall, from which gasps of pleasure were now emitting.
"What about what?"
Emma smiled as she realized that she had misplaced the voices. "Oh, nothing. I'm just overtired." She would later have a difficult time rationalizing to herself the tremendous feeling of relief that flooded her body at that very moment.
Regina smirked. "Because of all your clumsy behavior, I think everyone here has noticed that you're overtired.
Emma scooted over to make room for her in the bed and then laughed. Wait a minute, what am I laughing at? She just insulted me. But Emma was feeling too unusually buoyant to really care. After a few minutes, she said "Regina, on the longboat today when I jumped in after Samuel, why did you scream 'No?'"
Regina stayed silent for several seconds after Emma asked the question, making Emma think that she was asleep. But when she finally answered, she said "Because I thought you were going to die out there. And I was afraid that if you died, I might never see Henry again."
"Oh." Emma thought this over before saying "And when I was in the water, I felt a force propelling me toward Samuel, a force that felt like magic. Was that you?"
Regina looked sad. "My magic hasn't been able to work like usual here in Neverland."
"But it felt like you!" Upon seeing Regina's raised eyebrows, Emma clarified with "I mean, it felt like it was your magic, and now that Mr. Gold's gone, there's no one else here who can do magic, unless one of the natives can."
"I thought you told me that you can do magic."
"Sometimes, but I can't really control it." Emma looked at Regina with a fire burning in her eyes. "What if in our desperation, our magic combined so I could save Samuel."
Regina suddenly started to look annoyed. "I don't have time for this kind of discussion. Good night."
"But it's possible, isn't it? Since we're magically bonded?"
"Good night, Miss Swan, and what is that annoying sound coming from the room next door?"
Emma muffled her laugh in her pillow.
Author's note: Congratulations to the reviewer who figured out half the riddle—you are smarter than half the citizens of Storybrooke (can you imagine David trying to figure it out by himself?).