Chapter 4

The relief didn't last too long, for right away both women saw that something was wrong. "Regina," Emma said again. She reached out her hand to touch the darker woman, who otherwise didn't seem to acknowledge her presence even as she looked right at her. It was the strangest and scariest thing. Emma took Regina's face in her hand and gently manipulated it to move towards her own. A tear fell down her face as she brought the woman into her. Emma kissed her cheek and lips. "Something's wrong," she said. "There were two, you know. Two of them. Now? Only one. Something's wrong my love, and I-"

"It's gone," Regina said, stopping Emma's scared babbling. "My heart, she took it," she continued. For a moment, there seemed to be nothing else forthcoming.

"Regi-"

"My mother. She took my heart, Emma."

Emma leaned back slightly, allowing her to fully look at the Siren Queen. "I don't understand," Emma admitted.

"No... I don't suppose you would."

Regina pulled Emma closer, pressing their bodies together as close as possible. A sigh of relief escaped her as she felt Emma's heart pounding in her chest. She felt whole with Emma pressed to her like that, but the sensation did not last for long. Quickly Regina placed a kiss to Emma's lips before pulling away from her. Emma shuddered and immediately missed the contact.

"My mother has always been a terrible woman." Regina began, turning her back to Emma and staring out of the window at the sea. "Everything she has done has always been for her own gain. She is selfish and cruel, and this time was no different."

Emma took a few steps toward Regina, reaching out to place the palm of her hand on her back. There was no reaction, and it broke Emma's heart to pieces. Before she could even think to speak, Regina continued.

"She came and took my heart. She ripped it right out of my chest. I don't know why she took it, but I need to find out. I need my heart back, Emma. I cannot live like this." Regina waved a hand over herself, tears forming in her eyes. She could not control herself, not without her heart. Tears fell, but she barely noticed them. "I need your help." Regina felt anger at needing to ask for help, but none of it registered on her face.

Emma nodded, bringing herself closer to Regina once more as she wiped the tears on her face away. "I will help you, Regina. I will find your heart, even if it kills me."

Emma felt rather than heard Regina's sharp intake. "If you die, then I do not need my heart." It was a matter of fact statement, even without Regina's usual bite.

"What do you need me to do?" Emma asked softly. The hand not on Regina moved to her red jacket and then upwards towards the necklace that had been given to her. She wondered briefly if maybe it protected her from more than the rough seas. "Tell me, and I will do it. I have tried going up against you, and I too lost my heart, so tell me how to get it back."

Regina turned to Emma then. "Do you want it back?"

Emma was silent. Any rational part of her screamed that yes, she wanted it back, but the part of her that has overtaken everything forced her head to shake. "I mean, yes, I do. I mean... Perhaps you may have had my heart if only you'd asked for it?" Emma asked.

"And what about you? Did you ask for my heart before my mother ripped it away?" Regina asked. Emma and Regina remained silent for a moment.

"The possession of one's heart doesn't leave behind such a madness, does it?"

Regina let out a harsh laugh, but she did not speak.

"I don't- I don't like myself like this."

"Nor I like this."

"So, we go after your mother then?" Emma asked, even though it had already somewhat been established. Regina nodded.

"What about my family?"

"I suspect Graham has them all freed by now. Notice the stillness of the water," Regina said. Emma moved her hand up to Regina's shoulder and then down her arm to the darker woman's hand. She put Regina's hand to her own heart.

"Then with your hand upon my heart- which I know beats in time with yours- I swear to you that I will retrieve your heart. And afterwards, should you want it, you may have mine as well. But please, I need my mind. I need it back."

"I don't know what I can promise," Regina said honestly. She concentrated on the thumps against her fingertips. "All I know is that I will try to reverse the spell."

Emma was about to say something else- to take back the fact that she wanted Regina to give the blonde her heart back, but a knock on the door to Regina's room sounded, as did a shout or two above them on deck.

"What is it?" Regina growled at the door, frustration evident in her brown eyes.

Graham entered the room quickly, shutting the door behind him. "I've released her family, but they're causing an uproar. I apologize for interrupting you, My Queen, but we need her to calm her family down. Otherwise, a fight will ensue and I would rather neither side be hurt." His voice was strained and ladled with concern.

Regina nodded and turned her head back to Emma. "Go calm your family down. We will need them."

A nervous look passed over Emma's features and she bit her lip. "It will be hard convincing them. You know that, right?"

"I am aware of that."

Emma sucked in a breath before letting it out slowly. "I will try my best."

"That is all I ask for." Regina whispered, leaning in to place a chaste kiss to Emma's lips. When she leaned back, she took a step away from Emma, cutting off all contact. "Now go. Get your family and have your ship ready."

Emma nodded and turned before she could miss the contact between them entirely. She passed Graham without so much as a glance, hearing him say something to Regina before following after her. Emma quickly ran towards the noise, following the sound of Ruby and Mary Margaret's voices. It was as she turned a corner that she found the two of them, and the rest of her family, pointing swords at the Sirens.

"Mary Margaret! Red!" Emma called, catching the attention of not only the two women, but her entire family. Their eyes went wide as soon as they saw her. Mary Margaret turned and ran towards her while Ruby grinned widely at her.

"Nice jacket." Ruby commented, throwing her a wink. "And it's good to know you're still alive." She threw in afterwards, before turning to face the Sirens again.

Mary Margaret slammed into her body, flinging her arms around the blonde and sobbing. "Emma! I thought you were dead! I was sure the Siren Queen had killed you. I'm so glad you're alive! I missed you!" The brunette continued to babble, making Emma entirely uncomfortable. It was especially heartbreaking knowing the news she would have to break to them.

Emma finally broke away from the woman she thought of as a mother, smiling nervously as she freed herself from her tight grip. "I missed you, too." She said.

"What's the matter?" Mary Margaret questioned, already concerned with the look on Emma's face.

"I'll tell you as soon as you all quit trying to kill them." Emma pointed to the Sirens. That gained her a surprised look from everyone staring at her.

"Why would we do that?" Ruby asked, anger evident in her tone. "They kidnapped us and turned us into one of them. We need to kill them and then go after the Queen!"

"NO!" Emma shouted, cutting off what Mary Margaret was about to throw in as well. They all stood with their mouths open, completely speechless. "I will not let kill the Queen. You will not touch her or go anywhere near her." Emma face was turning red with each passing second.

"What did she do to you?" Mary Margaret asked, her face pale from fright. She reached her hand out to Emma, but the blonde took a step back.

"She did nothing. I will not explain myself to you." Emma sucked in a breath, trying to calm her nerves. "I do have something else I need to explain though. The Siren Queen needs my help and that means that I need your help as well. Everyone's help, including the Queen's crew."

It was as the last words fell from her lips that everyone began talking at the same time, ranting at her and yelling. Chaos surrounded her as they switched between arguing amongst themselves and firing questions at Emma. Clearly no one was happy with what she had said, just as Emma had suspected. When the yelling became too much and she heard Graham shuffling behind her, Emma clapped her hands and whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Shut up! Everyone just shut up right this instant." Finally the voices stopped, giving the room a peaceful quiet. "I have a stake in this. The Queen needs something back and she needs our help. I swore I would help her and I refuse to go back on my word. So either we all work together and try to get along or I'm doing this alone. I will do anything and everything it takes to help her and nothing less." There was a finality in her words and it was thankfully enough to keep everyone quiet.

"And I am going with her," Regina said, coming up to the large group. Right away, Regina's Sirens quieted and nodded to their queen. With no one to argue with, seeing as the men who were the original crew of the SS Storybrooke remained quiet for most of this, Emma's crew slowly died down as well.

"I don't understand what is happening, but you came back for us," Ruby finally said. "We can't just abandon you."

"Then work with me. With us. It shouldn't be a long journey."

"It looks like you have your own crew now," Mary Margaret said, watching as Emma swayed towards Regina, but fought to keep her hands to herself.

"It's all of our crew if we just work together for a bit. Then we can go get another ship," Emma suggested. "Who knows, maybe we won't want to. Come on, everyone, I will introduce you all, and we can get going again," Emma said. She walked over to the SS Storybrooke, where Mulan lay in a few orders to their new found crew, who listened and obeyed. The men who had been on shore seemed less inclined to do so, as Mulan was one of the lowest ranking members on deck before they had been affected by the Sirens, despite being the ship's best warrior. Emma saluted Mulan with a grand gesture. "Permission to come on board, Captain?" she asked.

"You know you do," Mulan said, and Emma detected a hint of a smile on her face. Emma helped Regina onto the boat, and Graham and the Sirens followed after them. Soon, all of Emma's family were with them, and three groups stood facing each other.

"Everyone, this is your captain, Mulan. She's amazing. I'm Captain Emma Swan, but I don't give orders. I just like the name, you see." This earned a chuckle from one of the newly gathered crew. Emma thought maybe it was from August. "I want you all to know that we're going out to a part of the sea that I don't think any of us have been to before. I don't know what to expect, but it will make these waters seem like walking on air. I am glad to see that you are coming with, as I will need your help, but I don't blame you if you decide to leave at any time. No one will."

"Where are we going?"

"We're going after Regina's mother."

Those that belonged to Regina gasped. They knew a little bit about what to expect, having seen the woman in the castle days ago. There were murmurs, and a small sob from Nova. Grumpy looked over to her, but he didn't say anything, just gave a small look of encouragement. "She has something of mine and I need to give it back. It has been agreed that once this is returned, I will have Emma back to... how she was. This is why she is doing this. This is why she needs your help," Regina said. Once she did, Emma's family seemed to calm a little and to understand.

Mulan spoke up then. "We need to gather any supplies that we can from here. I don't know how long we are at sail, but we only have enough on this ship to last a crew of thirteen for more days."

"Aye, Captain," Emma said, and she began to move. Seeing Emma take orders from Mulan set an example, and others went into action as well.

"I want to set sail as soon as possible!" Mulan called after them.

"Aye, Captain!" Emma said over her shoulder.
_

Four more days passed with fairly smooth sailing. There were fights here and there, but thankfully it was mostly peaceful. Most of the fights were about the rum quickly disappearing. All fingers were pointed to Grumpy ninety-nine percent of the time. Friendships were started among the ship, maybe even a few relationships here and there. Secrets and rumors were whispered of this person sleeping with another person, but nothing was ever really confirmed. Mary Margaret kept her eyes on Emma, watching her around Regina. It was odd the way she just seemed to gravitate to her, like Regina was a magnet of some kind. There was a connection between them and it made Mary Margaret wonder just exactly what Regina's mother had taken.

Thankfully though, she had found someone to take her mind off of things for at least a little while. Mary Margaret had taken to James fairly quickly, his looks appealing to her as well as his loyal personality. It was with very little persuasion that James talked Mary Margaret into teaching him sword fighting. She had obliged with a large smile on her face. They had started the second day of their sailing and worked for hours without fail. Emma watched them, thinking Mary Margaret only did it because she found him good looking. It seemed to Emma that she was falling for James in a hurry. It was good news to her, considering it would help keep Mary Margaret's mind off of what was going on between her and Regina. She'd felt her eyes on her since they had set sail.

On the fourth day, Emma sat down with Grumpy to share a bottle of rum and catch a front row seat to watch Mary Margaret start her teaching with James. She had reluctantly left Regina in the cabin of the ship, kissing her cheek before letting the sleeping woman rest. Regina had been doing quite a bit of sleeping, and Emma could only conclude that it had everything do with her missing heart. It was this dilemma that led her to drink an entire bottle of rum before actually venturing to find Grumpy. She had been swaying when she found him, but that didn't stop him from agreeing to drink with her. As she sat with Grumpy, fighting over who got the next sip from the bottle, Emma caught sight of Mary Margaret coming out from under the ship.

"There she is! Teach him something good today, M!" Emma hollered, waving the bottle of rum in the air and winking at her when Mary Margaret looked up.

Mary Margaret shook her head, trying desperately to hide the grin threatening to break out on her lips. "Keep your shirt on, Emma. I have something in mind for him today!" She called back, unsheathing her sword to examine it for a moment.

James appeared soon after, a smile on his face as he walked towards Mary Margaret. There was a glint in his eye that told Emma he was enjoying this for far more than learning swordsmanship. "I'm ready for the days lesson. Looking forward to it, actually." James said with a grin.

Mary Margaret looked up then, a crooked little smirk appearing on her mouth. "Glad to hear that because I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I'm excited to teach you."

James' eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Well, teach away, milady." He bowed, looking up to give a playful wink.

"Ohh," Emma let out after she handed Grumpy the empty bottle of rum. When the man tried to take a drink, he found it empty. He made a noise, but went to put the bottle away. The blonde looked at the helm, where Pete and Mulan spoke, and then she looked up towards the crow's nest. She could see Belle's hair, which was now down, whip across her face. Emma surveyed other parts of the ship and saw Ruby looking upwards at Belle as well, while next to her, Henry was helping the woman untangle some of the ropes. Nova and Graham were playing cards with two of the men from Mulan's original crew as well as August, and from the looks of it, Nova was winning. Emma watched as Grumpy came back with a handful of grapes, which were almost going bad. He threw them overboard, and the two of them watched as it got covered in the foam.

"How much further?" Grumpy asked.

"Don't know," Emma replied truthfully. Regina had told her that it might have been rough getting to Cora, but she didn't press it. Mostly, when she was there in Regina's arms, there was silence. There was something about Regina now that scared Emma. There was an emptiness to her as if all the fight she ever had in her was gone. Emma felt that any semblance of the former Siren Queen was taken with her, only to show brief glimpses when they lay together at night. They never spoke about what would happen once Emma got Regina her heart back. She just knew that this madness would cease, but part of her wondered if perhaps she'd fall for Regina regardless of magic.

"You know..." Grumpy said after another moment, "I don't know how I feel about all this." Emma didn't say anything. "I'm here all the way, but what are we up against? I mean, this is Regina's mother. She is the one who RAISED the Siren Queen. Who's to say we'll have a chance?"

"No one. No one promised it would be easy. No one said you wouldn't die."

There was another silence. "At least if I die, there will be some lovely sights before I do. Like that servant girl of Regina's. Nova. She's beautiful. If she had called to me without any powers, I'd still run into the rocks trying to get to her," he admitted.

"Is that the rum talking?" Emma teased.

"Probably, but I mean it," Grumpy admitted. Emma grinned and then walked away from him towards the card table. "Ho! NO!" Grumpy hurried after Emma and grabbed her arm with both of his hands. It took a bit of his strength to pull her back. "You say anything to her and you will regret it," he said, though both knew they were empty words. Emma let out a laugh and wobbled back to the side of the boat. Her stomach wasn't doing well. Looking around, she saw a couple of other people seemed a little sick as well.

"Something's wrong. I need to go check on Regina," Emma said, even as her hands gripped the side of the boat even harder.

Grumpy made no protest as he doubled over, one hand holding onto the side of the boat to steady himself. Emma pushed away and stumbled towards the entrance to the cabin. She leaned against the door for a moment, breathing heavily as the glass of the window felt cool against her skin. However, she moved her head from the window and opened the door, nearly throwing herself into the cabin of the ship. She barely got the door closed before she was calling out Regina's name.

"Regina? Are you alright?" Emma called out, her skin beginning to feel clammy and she moved herself forward slowly.

She heard Regina groan before she even saw her, and it made fear crawl into the pit of her stomach. That feeling only made Emma feel even more sick. She tried to move forward a little faster, but stumbled over her own feet. Emma barely caught herself on a wall as she started to fall forward. Her green eyes roamed around the room, finally landing on Regina's curled body on the bed.

"Regina!" Emma called, pushing herself off of the wall and shuffling towards the bed. Halfway there, she stopped and bent over, breathing in through her nose to keep from throwing up. Emma got a hold of herself and practically fell the rest of the way to the bed. She crawled in next to Regina, pulling her body closer to hers as she laid her head on Regina's shoulder.

"Emma." Regina breathed, her voice gravely and low.

"I'm right here," Emma began as she kissed the top of Regina's shoulder. A shiver ran through her body and her hold on Regina became tighter. "Are you…" Emma swallowed back the urge to vomit, her stomach rolling with pain. "Are you alright?" She questioned, her free hand smoothing through Regina's hair.

"No. I'm just as sick as you are." Regina hissed, her hands clenching tighter to her stomach as she, too, felt the urge to expel everything from her stomach.

"What's wrong with everyone?" Emma asked, feeling her body and Regina begin to shake. Quickly, she pulled the covers over the both of them and clung to Regina's body as closely as she could.

"M-Maleficent has a protection s-spell around her ship. It means we're close to hers." Regina responded, the shivering beginning to make her teeth chatter as she broke out into a sweat.

Emma's body fell into the same step with Regina's, the two of them shivering as they lay in the bed together. "W-Who is Maleficent?" She wondered out loud.

"She's an old….friend." Regina provided hesitantly. 'Friend' was not exactly the best word, though she was the closest friend Regina had.

"Why in bloody hell would she make anyone feel like this?"

"She's a-always had a s-sick sense of h-humor." Regina clamped her jaws together, trying to keep her teeth from chattering so much.

Emma groaned and shut her eyes tightly, clenching her own jaw together as well. "When w-will this p-pass?"

"W-whenever she f-figures out t-that we're n-not a threat. Which I c-cannot guarantee will happen."

"Why?" Emma inquired, her forehead leaning against the middle of Regina's shoulder blades.

"We d-did not part ways gently that last time we s-saw each other." A new wave of shivers hit Regina, and it rippled through Emma's body as well.

Emma said nothing else. There was nothing else to say. She only hoped that whoever this Maleficent person was, they would quickly lift this protection spell. If she felt this horrible for much longer, Emma was sure she'd throw up everything sitting in her stomach.

There was a call above them, and Emma faintly recognized it as Graham's calling down to them. "If she is a friend of yours," Emma said slowly with tight eyes, "then it will be you she recognizes. I was just..." Emma gulped. "I was just up there and I didn't see a ship. Her magic must have it so we can't. You need to do something, Regina." Emma felt rather than saw the woman nod. Slowly, the body beneath her shifted, and Emma stood up as well. The two women hung on to each other as they got on deck. Henry was kneeling on the ground, a bucket next to him, someone's vomit before him as he was trying not to hurl himself. He continued scrubbing, and more than half of the ship were leaned over the side, losing their stomach contents.

Emma walked Regina over to the front of the ship and held a hand to the small of her back as she stood on the side and called out. "Maleficent! T'is I, Regina, Queen of the Sirens! I wish to sail in these waters!" There was a silence, but there was no longer the feeling of nausea. Then, there was a purple haze that quickly became the image of a ship almost as large as Regina's, which in itself easily overshadowed the SS Storybrooke. Regina saw movement before she felt herself being knocked off of the ledge and onto Emma. Both women fought for air. Emma helped Regina, and then went into a fighting stance when a blonde woman in a black and purple cloak appeared in the midnight blue smoke around her. She hurried to Regina, and with the swish of her hand, had Emma flying a few feet. Maleficent tilted her head to look at Emma, and then at her hand. There was a purple glow from the woman's necklace and this made her look back to Regina with a smirk. Then her face became serious again as she moved. Her hand went around Regina's neck, and she lifted the woman up a little bit.

"Where is it?"