Chapter three

"Miss Swan, please refrain from getting popcorn on my couch, or you will be sitting on the floor," a beautiful brunette threatened.

"Come on Regina, it's movie night, stop moaning," Emma laughed while stuffing more popcorn into her mouth.

"I don't care what night it is," she scowled, as she took the bowel off her and gave it to a boy who sat next to her who seemed to be very engrossed in the movie. "Maybe Henry can be more mature than you're being," she quipped while returning her attention to the screen.

Crossing her arms, Emma fell to the back of the couch mourning the loss of her popcorn, and began planning ways to get it back.

"Emma, wake up," Gwen shouted.

"What?" she shot up.

"You have ten deliveries to make; don't you usually wake up earlier?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep," Emma lied, as she rubbed the grogginess from her eyes. "I'll go in ten minutes."

Nodding, she began to turn away, the blonde quickly stood up as she asked, "can I ask you question?"

Turning she began to smile, "that was part of this arrangement right, never known someone to want to be paid in answers," she said almost to herself.

"There's a knights tournament in a few weeks right?" she nodded, "do you have to be a certain class to join or pass some test?"

"No, anyone can join, the first round is just one long elimination contest."

"Elimination?" Emma gulped.

"It's just defeating the other in battle, I think if you kill anyone before the final round you actually get disqualified. Why do you ask? You can't think you should join?"

"Well Thomas is providing weapons for it right?" again she nodded, but she still looked at the blonde like she was crazy, "so I'm going to be there anyway, I just feel like I should join."

"How can someone with no memories have such a strong feeling?"

"Trust me Gwen, the feelings are all I have," Emma laughed bitterly.

"Well if you think it will help, I suppose just entering the first round won't get you killed."

As she walked away, another question came into the blonde's head that she knew Gwen wouldn't be able to answer, what's a movie?

For the next few weeks Emma continued to have similar dreams.

She began to see a pattern, I spent a lot of time with Regina and Henry. But she also dreamed of others, she saw a woman with a pixie cut and a blonde man , that she called 'mom' and 'dad'. Although, the fact that they looked to be about the same age as her, she decided to file it away for later. But she also noticed that she always felt completely and utterly happy in these dreams. She couldn't help but wonder why she had left, she was beginning to think that Merlin had left out some specific memories.

Emma continued to be the villages personal errand girl.

But whenever she managed to have a break, she managed to sneak away one of Thomas's swords, and began swinging it.

"You know you won't hurt many people that way? I mean you could probably do a number on yourself," a twenty something guard laughed.

"Shut up Jackson," Emma pouted, but after a moment of his staring she sighed, "fine, what am I doing wrong?"

"You have to centre your weight more, if you fall over you probably won't very far," he laughed, drawing his sword, he began to demonstrate.

From that point on, Jackson became her unofficial trainer, basically teaching her everything he knew. By the end of each session he would usually murmur begrudgingly that she was 'a natural.'

Two weeks before the tournament, Emma walked into the blacksmith, mentally going through every move she and Jackson had gone over. Since they were leaving tomorrow, today had been her last training lesson. Though she had been terrified, he had assured her that she would be fine, and to only tell people that he had trained her if she didn't her ass kicked in elimination.

Placing the water on the floor, Emma attempted to strerch her aching muscles, which sadly only seemed to help for a few moments.

Thomas looked up, from the last batch of weapons he had forged, and smiled, "you know, I've never met such a kind stranger in my life."

"You've done a lot for me, I owe you," Emma returned, moving over to help him move the swords onto a wagon.

"Yes you owe me, not the entire village. You have more than made up for what you're 'twin' did."

Emma raised her eyebrow at his use of air quotes and asked, "you don't believe we're related?"

"You're just too different," he laughed, as they placed the last sword onto the wagon, he smiled and said, "I have a gift for you."

Emma tilted her head, wondering why he would feel the need to give her a gift when he had basically saved her from starvation.

From a shelf behind him, he produced a sheathed sword. It's hilt was engraved with the image of a warrior defeating a dragon, and it's blade was as meticulously made as any of the others, if not more. It was certainly an improvement on the throwaway one she had been using with Jackson.

Inspecting it in awe, the blonde managed to choke out, "why?"

"Well, we want someone from this town to actually have a shot of winning that tournament," he chuckled at the shocked look I gave him, before he explained, "Gwen told me."

"I want you to get back to Regina and Henry," Gwen smiled while walking past the other two, "by the way; you talk in your sleep."

The next day, Thomas, Emma and Gwen (after much convincing on Emma's behalf) set off for the tournament.

With Thomas guarding the rear on a horse, the two girls sat upon the carriage, each holding a set of reins.

"So what are they like?" Gwen asked out of the blue.

"Who?" Emma asked with a furrowed brow.

"You're family," she replied with an exasperated sigh.

"They might just be dreams, you know?"

Gwen shook her head and asked, "do they feel like dreams?"

Emma let out a dramatic sigh and relented, "they're perfect."

"So are you going to tell me why you're so desperate to join this tournament?"

"You won't believe me," the blonde laughed.

"Try me," she retorted.

"A wizard told me to join," Emma replied with a wry smile.

"Sounds reasonable," she replied without a trace of sarcasm.

"Really?"

"Well...no, but you are a pretty strange person."

Emma nodded in agreement and they both began to laugh.

After a six day journey that involved a lot of camping and stretches of complete silence, the trio finally arrived at castle town. As the name suggests it was literally a town beneath the castle, and Emma realised for the first time that the royalty would be watching her fight, which for some reason made her feel ten times more nervous.

Having promised to still carry out her other duties while in the tournament, she stood at the carriage as she helped Thomas unpack the weapons onto yet another wagon that she had to take to the castle.

Gwen leaned against the stable door watching as people bustled around, only for a sudden sharp intake of breath to catch the blonde's attention.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked.

Gwen pointed into the crowd, and Emma instantly knew what was wrong. Though the two of them were quite obviously identical, there just seemed to be something darker about her twin, and Emma couldn't help but feel like there was no way she could be her sister.

Without another thought, Emma grabbed her sword, and ran after her, much to the protestations of Thomas and Gwen.

The darker Emma just smirked as she watched the other blonde approach her, and began to walk casually to the opening of an alleyway.

"Who are you?" accompanied the sound a sword being drawn.

"Come now, Swan, are you that damaged that you can't recognise me?" she laughed.

Emma felt unable to process what she had said, as she realised that this other her had the same voice as the darkness as the darkness. Now she had taken on a completely human form, with the only major difference between them being her stunningly frightening golden eyes.

"I still don't know who you are," Emma retorted.

She drew her sword; Emma's having gone forgotten at her side.

Just before she brought the hilt down upon Emma's head she laughed and said, "I'm you."