Chapter five
Regina sighed as she sat at her desk reading a form that David had sent her from sheriff's station. Looking at his perfect handwriting, she longed to be reading Emma's chicken scratch. Even if it was the most irritating thing at the time, at least it would mean that she would still be here.
Every day she wondered whether there was anything that she could have done, whether she had given up too early. She just couldn't believe that it had been two years since she had essentially killed Emma.
"Hey Regina," Snow said as she walked into the office with a Granny's bag.
Regina offered a weak smile as she placed the form down. Though having lunch with anyone but Emma left a huge gaping void in her heart, she had come to realise that Snow was as crippled with grief as she was, so they had become tentative friends, though the lost saviour was often their only topic of conversation.
Snow sat down and offered Regina her chicken salad, "thinking about Emma?" she asked with a sad smile.
Though they each suffered daily with their loss, it felt particularly bad on the anniversary, they had each only left the graveyard half an hour ago, when Snow had offered to pick up lunch.
"I usually am," Regina answered.
"You know no one blames you right?" Snow asked.
"Logically, I understand that I had to do it, but it just feels like..." Regina shook her head, feeling unable to finish her thought.
"You feel like you could have done something else?" Snow asked empathetically.
Regina nodded sadly, only for their lunch to be interrupted as Belle ran into the office.
"Did we have an appointment?" Regina asked, looking at her schedule.
Belle shook her head as she tried to catch her breath, before she placed a book on Regina's desk.
"What's this?" Snow asked looking at the worn out cover.
"I was looking through my collection, and I came across this, it's a history of the Dark One," she replied.
"So?" Regina asked, though she felt her stomach clench in hope.
"It's hard to explain," Belle answered.
Snow's eyes widened, and asked, "so why are you here?"
"I talked to Rumple about what I read, and he agrees that the good Emma is probably alive."
Emma stretched and woke with a yawn. She couldn't help but smile at her latest dream of a family dinner with Regina and Henry. She looked outside to see that it wasn't quite morning, and sighed in frustration. Merlin's master had been very clear that she had to wait. She turned to see Gwen still fast asleep in the other bed.
To pass the time, she decided to get a head start on her chores, so she tied her sword to her belt, pocketed the potion and made her way to the stables.
Emma spent the next hour grooming the horses, trying to refrain from breaking the strict instructions; all she wanted was to remember. It was hell to have to wait knowing she had the solution in her pocket.
A sound interrupted her, and she turned to be faced with her mirror image, "I expected you to be here later, you stole a dramatic moment from me," she laughed.
Looking at her, Emma noticed that the other woman was leaned cockily against one of the horses. She drew her sword, and asked, "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to talk to you," she smirked Emma brought the sword closer to her neck, only to have it pushed away, "no need to be violent."
Emma sighed in resignation, and asked again, "what do you want?"
"I want you to go back to that little village and live out your life there," she explained.
Emma narrowed her eyes and asked, "why? I'm clearly no threat to you."
"Surprisingly, you are the only threat to me in this time," she laughed.
"Time?" Emma asked.
"You really have no memories? You know that you're 10,000 years in the past, right?" she chuckled.
"10,000 years?" the blonde choked out.
"Thinking out Regina?" she laughed.
Shock must be written across Emma's feature features, because her counterpart began to laugh harder, "you really still think that you can return to the way thing were?"
"I don't know that much about the way things were," Emma reply with anger dripping through her voice. "What makes you think that I would do what you want anyway?"
"I just thought I would ask nicely, how about we make a deal, I'll tell you anything and you just stop trying to interfere."
Considering this for a moment Emma replied "no way, I'll never stop trying to stop you."
"Ever the hero," she muttered, "I guess there is another option."
Raising her hand, Emma's mouth fell open as she saw a ball of energy charge. She threw it straight at her twin, who just about managed to dodge it.
"What was that?" the blonde breathed.
"It's a sleeping curse, I can't kill you but I do need to get rid of you."
"Why can't you kill me?" she asked.
"Why would I kill myself?"
"So we are the same person?" Emma asked as she raised her sword in defence.
"Very perceptive," she laughs, "if it helps you can just call me Swan, when thinking about me in your eternal dreams."
At her admission, Emma began to develop a theory. When Swan raised her hand for another attack, Emma imagined a barrier surrounding her, as the magic approached Emma, it fizzled out.
"Impressive," she laughed.
Breathing harder, Emma demanded "tell me what's going on!"
Swan shook her head and smirked, "now where would the fun be in that?" she laughed, "you are stronger than I thought, I suppose I will have to use more conventional methods," she pondered, "until next time saviour."
She disappeared in a cloud of pure darkness, and Emma just stared for a few moments.
Not even bothering to check the sun, she took out the phial and downed the blue liquid.
Suddenly memories began flashing through mhermind. Foster care. Being a bailbonds woman. Storybrooke. The curse. Cora. Neverland. Zelena. The Snow Queen. The Queens of Darkness. Becoming the Dark One. And most importantly Regina and Henry.
Emma leaned against one of the horses for support, and looked around trying to take calming breathes, "holy shit, I'm in Camelot," she noted.
"Indeed you are," a male voice chuckled.
Emma gulped, and looked up, "what do you want Merlin?"
The old man laugh good naturedly, "just checking on you."
"Why didn't you give me the memory potion?" Emma asked accusatorily.
"I'm afraid that in the following years the book that the potion was in will be destroyed. Unfortunately I never got to study the ingredients, so it can no longer be made," he answered, "to be honest Emma, I forgot that it ever existed."
Emma rolled her eyes and muttered, "of course."
"Well now that you remember, you know that you need to get home."
"I've known that for a while, I just don't even understand why I'm here," she sighed.
"I'm afraid it may be difficult to explain," he replied.
"Okay whatever, answer me this, who is the Dark One here?"
"You are," he replied as if it were obvious.
"I meant who is it for this time period," Emma sighed.
"And I answered your question, the Dark One doesn't exist yet," he replied, "well I suppose you personally aren't the Dark One, you're the saviour."
With a exasperated sigh she asked "what?"
"When you came through the hat you spilt into the two aspects of yourself."
Shaking her head she decided to just accept it, "okay, so what's with the tournament?"
"You have to win, she is entering," he replied.
"Why would she join?"
"Because the winner gets to become a royal knight, if she does that than she will be able to start on the way to controlling all of Camelot."
"But I thought that she wants to just destroy things?" Emma asked with a furrowed brow, finally pushing herself off of the side of the horse.
"The Dark One is sadistic, but also incredibly smart," he replied.
"So what, you want me to stop her?" she asked.
"Well you are a much better prepared with your memories back," he reasoned.
"If I couldn't defeat the darkness internally, what makes you think that I can defeat the physical incarnation of it?" she pointed out, with a deep sigh.
"Well if you want to get back to your family you have no choice," he replied.
"Well obviously I can't kill her, so what do you suggest," she asked mockingly.
"You could channel to darkness into another person," he suggested.
"I would never do that to another person," the blonde replied with outrage evident in her voice.
"Not even if it is what is supposed to happen?" he asked.
"If you know what is supposed to happen, why not just tell me?" she almost begged.
"This is going to seem strange, but Camelot is where the first Dark One was created," he explained.
"You're right it's insane," she replied sarcastically.
"You were the first and last Dark One," he replied with a completely serious expression.
"What?" Emma sighed.
"Well originally the darkness essentially ruled all realms, until you were born. As the saviour you fought the darkness, but you couldn't defeat it so you absorbed it."
"That's not what happened."
"Not in your timeline, being bound to a mortal the darkness lost a lot of its power, and it meant that it could no longer rule all realms. I realised that your mortal body would not be able to control the darkness for eternity, so we devised a plan that worked very well. You sacrificed yourself went back in time to when the darkness first emerged. It was that moment that you woke up at, you created the Dark One and ensured that the darkness could be contained into a mortal being forever and also could be controlled by the dagger. It appears that things have come full circle, you have returned once again, I believe that you have trapped the Dark One in a time loop, in your time the Dark One can never exist again, you have essentially stopped the darkness's reign of terror," he explained.
"You expect me to believe in an alternate timeline?" she laughed, hoping that this was some elaborate prank.
"You need to face her in battle so that you can create the true first Dark One and return to your life as the saviour."
Emma nodded, "I guess that makes sense, but I still can't kill her."
"You don't have to kill her, simply sending the darkness into another, will allow you both to live."
"And who do you expect me to do that to?" Emma asked in outrage.
"She doesn't exist yet, the name of the first Dark One, however, was Morgana."
"Are you kidding me, you expect me to wait for Morgana to be born and grow up?" I can't spend that much time away from my family, she thought.
"I said she doesn't exist yet, and nor will she unless you create her," he replied.
Emma fell back against the horse again and held her hands over her face, desperately trying not to scream, how did my life get more complicated?