After a few moments of blankly staring into space, and once Esme began to process the fact that Regina was in Messene, she began to question the events surrounding the portal. The street was mayhem; most people were gossiping amongst themselves, and those that weren't were asking Esme questions that she simply didn't have the answers to - ones that she was asking herself. Firstly, Zelena had a cuff on - a magical cuff that prevented her from using any sort of magic - so how did she even manage to open the portal when she wasn't even supposed to have magic? Granted, opening a portal was much easier than creating one, but it should still have been impossible with the cuff on her wrist. Secondly, she was in prison; a very high security prison. Regina had given Zelena a pre-approved, minuscule list of visitors which consisted of herself, Robin, Dr Whale and the guards at the prison; no other communication was allowed. However, for her to have opened the portal in Storybrooke, it must have been opened in Messene as well but for that to happen, some sort of communication would have to have been carried out. None of this made sense.
"Esme? Esme?" Snow said softly as she cradled baby Neal in her arms and carefully touched Esme's arm.
"Oh, sorry! What happened?" Esme asked as she stared at the scorch mark the portal had left. The shock she initially felt was gradually being surpassed by a deep anger, the kind of anger Esme could feel brewing and bubbling deep within her. Why wouldn't Regina let her help? Esme specifically told her to stay away from any and all portals, but she didn't. So now Esme had to go home and tell two very worried little boys and a terrified man that Regina had been sucked through a portal, to a land she had told them horror stories about, by a woman Esme had only ever called a monster.
"I'm so sorry-"
"What happened, Snow?!" Esme snapped. It wasn't like her to lose her temper, not at all, but she could almost feel her blood boiling and all she wanted was an answer. She knew that Snow was trying to help, just like everyone who was hugging her or rubbing her arm was trying to help and she was grateful for their efforts but she didn't want their pitying looks, nor did she want their sympathy; she wanted to find out why Zoe sucked Regina into a portal instead of her and exactly what Zelena had to do with it. However, even with Esme feeling so angry, Esme didn't like seeing Snow look shocked, and she certainly didn't like it when Snow felt that she should hide her hurt.
"I'm sorry," Esme said as she patted Snows arm before stroking little Neal gently on his cherubic chubby cheek.
"This is just so… not what i need right now," Esme said as she laughed slightly and rubbed her eyes, trying to relieve her eyes of the exhaustion that was steadily setting in.
"I know honey, i'm so sorry," Snow said, with the same, warm expression that she always had.
"Can you please just tell me what happened? The sooner i know, the sooner i can get her back," Esme explained, as she slowly walked with Snow and David to one of the outside tables at Granny's; a quieter place where they could actually talk, and the fairy lights that Granny had delicately hung around the trellis made the scene a lot more soothing. Snow refrained from discussing tonights events until they were all sat down around the table, but the second they were there and they were no longer within earshot of every town gossip that Storybook had to offer, Snow quickly began to relay the details of what happened.
"We were sitting in Granny's when it started. There was a huge crash from the prison and before we knew it Zelena had zapped herself into the diner. She started taunting Granny-"
"Taunting Granny? Why?" Esme asked.
"Zelena's evil; she doesn't need a reason," David pointed out, a fact that Esme quickly nodded in agreement to.
"She started saying how she hoped Granny hadn't gotten too attached. How one granddaughter had left her, and now she would lose you too," Snow said tentatively, unsure as to whether she should be quite so honest with Esme; after all, she was only a young woman who already had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"Then why did Zoe take Regina instead of me?" Esme asked, talking more to herself than to Snow in a desperate attempt to try figure out what was happening.
"Zoe? Who's Zoe?"
"The woman i've been running from. I think that's who Zelena has taken Regina to-"
"What? No, sweetie i think you've misunderstood. Zelena didn't go through the portal with Regina, a man did," Snow explained.
"What? But Granny said that Zelena took Regina through the portal? A man?" Esme asked, utterly bemused; if the first version of events hadn't confused her, this second version most certainly had.
"She tried to, and would have done if the man hadn't come through first. He snatched Regina from Zelena and went straight through the portal again. It was closed within seconds. I've never seen Zelena so furious, so that clearly wasn't part of her plan, but she disappeared in her cloud of smoke before any of us could do anything," David explained, but Esme didn't really listen to anything after she heard the world 'man'. She was so sure that everything that had transpired this evening was due to Zoe, and with that, Esme at least had a face to direct all of her anger at and she at least knew where to look. But 'a man' didn't give Esme anything to go off; nothing at all.
"What did this man look like?" Esme asked. "The one that took Regina. Hair colour, clothes, anything," Esme pleaded but Snow simply gave her a bemused look.
"Umm, well he had black hair, it was greying slightly at the sides. He had a taupe tunic kind of thing on-"
"Did he have a purple sash around him?" Esme asked, allowing herself to feel the tiniest piece of hope.
"What? Umm yes i think-" Snow said but before she could utter the rest of the sentence Esme had bolted up and was walking, or marching, straight back into the crowd she had wanted to escape from mere moments ago. She heard Snow and David call her name but she didn't care; she wasn't sure why but she knew, or at least she thought she did. There was only one way to find out: she had to open the portal.
She had always had help when she needed to create portals, as she never had enough power to do so on her own, but opening portals was different; it was a relatively simple spell once you knew the destination.
"And just what do you think you're doing young lady?" Esme heard someone say before she felt a sharp tug of her arm and she was forced to stop moving, even thought she was only a few feet away from where she needed to be. When she spun around, mostly in anger, she saw that it was Granny who was gripping her arm; and she didn't look happy.
"I know where she is Granny. I can help her," Esme tried to explain but Granny was having none of it.
"And exactly how much use will you be when you're taken and imprisoned? And thats the best case scenario," Granny insisted, unrelenting in her grip of Esme's delicate arm.
"How do you-"
"The clothes, they were the same kind of thing you wore when you first got her and stole my pie," Granny said with a sly smile.
"Honey, you came here because you were running from that place. You can't just go marching back," Granny continued, hoping that she could somehow change the girls mind.
"I have to, Granny," Esme said as she continued to try and reassure Granny, but her vein attempt was met with a hostile reception and a particular confused and angry expression, so Esme continued.
"The only reason Regina ever got mixed up in all of this is because of me. I know, Granny. I know what it's like there and i can't just leave her there. I'm sorry but i can't. Henry's already lost one mom, so has Roland and Robin..- Robin can't lose her. He just can't-"
"And what about you? How do you think they would feel if they lost you," Granny stated and Esme stopped rambling. She loved her family, with every fibre in her body, and she knew that they loved her, but not in the same way that they loved Regina. They needed her, and she needed them.
"Granny listen to me," Esme said as she took Granny's hand in hers, "you need to let me go. I can't just leave her there, okay? I owe it to her and them to bring her home," Esme explained.
"And how exactly are you going to do that, hmm?" Granny hissed, increasingly frustrated that Esme was so willing to put herself in such terrible danger, for a woman Granny wasn't entirely convinced would afford Esme the same courtesy. The woman was cold, damaged and evil; she was going to let Esme down sooner or later, and Granny would rather she didn't do so in a life or death situation like the one Esme was moments away from entering.
"Regina! Esme!" someone called, and immediately the entire gaggle of gossips turned their heads and watched as a dishevelled Robin sprinted down the main street. Esme escaped Granny's grip, pushed herself through the crowd and met Robin.
"What the- How the hell did you get out of the house?" Esme asked seconds before Robin pulled her close and held her so tight, Esme could hardly breath as her nose was pressed so tightly against his chest.
"The spell wore off. The boys are with little John" he said as he pushed her forward slightly and held her shoulders, reassuring himself that she wasn't hurt, an action Esme noticed.
"I'm fine," Esme explained.
"Thank god. Where's Regina?" Robin said, but the second he saw Esme look to her right, he knew that the answer to that question wouldn't make him quite so happy.
"Don't worry, i'm gonna fix it," was all Esme could say. She just couldn't tell him that she was in Messene. She had sat with him on the couch in Regina's lounge, with beautiful, strong British tea in their hands and the soft glow of the fire illuminating their faces, and she talked about Messene. She told him about how orphans were all kept in one, huge house. She explained to him about how they were educated from a young age, and were separated depending on what you were strongest at; math, art, science or sport. Esme never reached that far; she aged much slower than the rest of the girls, she didn't possess any strong talent in any of the categories and her powers had began to show and so she was sent to the Empress's palace. She was tested there, questioned and eventually sent to the tower. There she was shackled and starved in Zoe's psychotic attempt to 'train' her. Robin knew all of this, she had told him, and she couldn't bring herself to tell him that that place - that horrible, dark place - was where Regina was. So she didn't. Her declaration was met with a confused expression, but Esme didn't care because the second the words left her mouth, she marched to the place where the portal had been. She had seen a witch open a portal before, and ever since she had had the vision, she had read every single book there was on portals and had found the one the witch used. It wasn't much of a plan but it was all Esme had, and so she ran to the site where the portal was, hoped that there was still residual energy, and re-sited the incantation.
"Ego praecipio tibi ut aperias porta," Esme chanted as she stood on the site where the portal had left a black scorch mark on the ground. Nothing happened. No wind blew, no lightening roared and no portal came.
"Esme get back here-" Robin said as she pushed his way towards her but she didn't dare look at him. He would be terrified, his face would have sickening worry carved into every line in his face and Esme didn't want to see him like that, so she used a spell and pushed him, and everyone else, away from around the portal.
"Ego praecipio tibi ut aperias porta. Ego praecipio tibi ut aperias porta. Ego praecipio tibi ut aperias porta," Esme chanted only this time, she felt something. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but with every repetition of the phrase, she could almost feel the power flow through her veins and into the ground. As she continued to chant, the wind began to pick up and Esme knew that she was close. With a mixture of excitement and dread, she chanted the phrase three more times before she was eventually thrown backwards towards the crowd and a terrific beam of light soared into the clouds and screeched as its power escaped with every second that passed by. Esme landed flat on her butt, and was winded slightly by the force of her fall, but none of that mattered when she saw Robin run into the light.
"No! No!" Esme screamed but it was too late, he disappeared into the portal and Esme was filled with dread; she couldn't lose them both. No way, no how. She wouldn't lose them both. The portal needed a persons energy to feed off; once it had that, it would close. So Esme knew that she had approximately 5 seconds to get off the ground and sprint to the portal; and so she did. Before her brain even registered what Esme was doing, and despite the desperate cries from the Charmings and Granny, Esme was on her feet and as she saw the brightness from the portal dim, she lunged through the beam of energy and soared as the energy from the portal engulfed her.
She felt as if she had been falling for hours. The sensation was odd; it wasn't enjoyable, nor was it hateful. She did hate the sickening feeling she got in the pit of her stomach, but she loved how oddly free she felt - like a bird, soaring through the clouds at full speed. The sensation of freedom felt timeless - like it was hours long yet also only seeming like mere seconds - and so Esme wasn't sure how long she had been falling, but that didn't necessarily matter when she eventually, and promptly, felt ground beneath her feet and the wind that had been racing through her hair stopped. She had to close her eyes as she was being transported, the force of the wind was too much for them, yet when she opened them, she noticed Robin around one foot away from where she had landed .
"Robin!" Esme said as she scrambled to meet him. She had never been so relieved and angry to see someone, yet the warmth she felt from his strong embrace made her forget about the danger she knew that they were in; it made her feel safe.
"What are you doing here?" Robin whispered as he held her head so close to him, hoping to somehow prevent her from seeing where they were.
"What am i doing here?!" Esme asked in a volume much louder than her fathers, forcing herself to pull away from the safety of his arms and look him in the eye. This was never supposed to happen; Esme was supposed to get Regina home and Robin was supposed to be safely in Storybook with Robin and Henry.
"Yes, what are you doing here? The portal is supposed to close once someone enters-" Robin said but he was greeted by a very confused, yet impressed look on Esme's face, and so he was forced to explain.
"What? Regina tells me things!" Robin explained, to which Esme laughed. Robin loved that smile. Ever since he had woken up from the coma, he dreamt of her smile, of hearing her laugh, of holding her when she cried. He knew that whatever she had been through here was going to torment her for the rest of her days and he knew that he couldn't make up for all of those lost years, but he couldn't and wouldn't accept that he would never have a relationship with his daughter; he would spend every moment of every day making sure that she knew she wasn't alone - not ever. The smile that Robin had seen spread across Esme's dirty face faded quickly, and before Robin knew what was happening, Esme was on her feet and stood directly in front of him; protecting him. Robin stood up but before he asked her what she was looking at, he saw what had grabbed her attention.
"Hello Esme," a man said as he stood under a stone archway.
"Hello Cyrus."