AN: This one is different than I believe the rest of the chapters will be as it doesn't involve both worlds. It's only a 7-year-old Emma in FTL. It's a lengthy bit of an exposition dump regarding Emma. Though I hope I've made it entertaining enough that you wouldn't have noticed the exposition dump had I not just told you…
"When are they gonna be here?!" a seven-year-old Emma whined as she paced the foot of the bed in her parent's bedchamber.
"Any minute, my darling." Snow smirked.
Emma always got a little too excited when waiting for her best friend to come over. She and Alexandra were the little princesses that had their kingdoms' and every kingdom's hearts.
A knock sounded on the door, "Your majesty?" a maid came in, "They're here."
"They're here?" Emma looked wide-eyed at the maid, who nodded. The blonde princess then darted passed the woman and ran down the hall so she would be able to greet her friend as soon as she got out of her carriage.
"Are they here, princess?" Charming soon came behind his daughter and squatted to be at her level.
"Yeah." Emma nodded.
"Are you and Alexandra going to play and not try to sneak off like you did last time?"
"ALEXANDRA!" Emma jumped up and down, clapping her hands, her father's question completely lost on her.
"EMMA!" a six-year-old Alexandra tried to wiggle out of Thomas's grasp after seeing her friend.
Emma ran down the steps and took Alexandra's hand when the other princess's father set her down, and they ran back up the steps. "Come on! Let's go play outside!" Emma gave her friend a smile as the two girls made their way through the castle.
The two princesses were playing in the back garden. Both had on their pretend armor. Emma had a wooden shield and sword, and Alexandra had a wooden battle-axe—the two were made to trade off every time they played. The entrance to the labyrinth was always enticing, but they weren't allowed to go without an adult.
The two girls were playing what they liked to call, 'Evil Queen'. They would fight epic battles and try to defeat the Evil Queen they had heard so many stories about. They both knew that their parents fought side by side against her. And they both knew that the Evil Queen had some sort of tiff with Emma's mom, but they didn't know much aside from that except that they'd finally defeated her and vanquished her—at least they weren't supposed to know much more than that.
Emma was in the middle of battling a dragon when she stopped and stared at the entrance of the labyrinth.
"Emma! Watch out for da dragon!" Alexandra cried. "Emma!"
Emma turned and ran behind a bench in the garden, ducking for cover. Alexandra somersaulted, ducking a blow of fire no doubt, before running to take cover from the dragon with her friend.
"Emma, what's wrong?"
"The queen is close." Emma whispered, staring at the entrance. "She's in her castle." She pointed to the labyrinth.
"But Emma…. Dat's the forbidden lands… the forest always changes and makes you go in circles. It's a trick."
"The only way we can defeat her is if we defeat her not her dragon, not her evil knights. Her. Alexandra, we have to for the sake of good. For the sakes of our peoples!"
Alexandra gave her a serious look before she relented, "You're right."
Emma smiled as she secured her shield on her arm, "Let's go." She sheathed her sword in the loop in her belt and offered her hand to Alexandra.
Alexandra took Emma's hand and dragged the smoothed, wooden blades of her battle-axe behind her.
They'd wound around the maze a while when they heard a noise.
"What was that?" Alexandra jumped and squeezed Emma's hand tight.
"Nothing." Emma knew to be brave for Alexandra because she always got scared in the labyrinth, "Let's go."
"Is it the evil queen?" Alexandra whispered.
Emma looked around in thought, taking every little thing in before shaking her head, "No."
A bird flew from its nest in the maze's wall a few feet in front of them, causing Emma to put her shield up and try to protect both her friend and herself.
Alexandra broke character, "Wow. You're really brave."
Emma gave the other princess a grin, "My Daddy says I should only be brave when I have to be."
Alexandra smiled, "He's smart."
Emma nodded, "Yeah…" She dug her foot in the ground, "Let's go find the queen."
"Yeah!"
They started off once more and wound their way to the very center of the labyrinth.
Emma stopped Alexandra from walking, "Shh." She put her finger over her mouth, "She doesn't know we're here…"
Alexandra nodded and they tiptoed into the center of the large hedge maze, keeping their backs against the hedge. The center was graced with a large, elegant weeping willow that seemed to take over the small koi pond originally meant to be the main attraction. It also had a long curved bench around the pond.
Emma stared passed the tree to the middle of the bench. She squinted her eyes and tilted her head. She saw the seven-year-old evil queen they had been chasing down since Alexandra got there. She saw her lying there on what Emma decided was her bed, waiting to be defeated. Some unidentifiable pull ran rampant throughout Emma's veins and she knew what the queen was doing, "She's surrendering…"
Alexandra looked to her friend as she pushed off the hedge, "Why?" She stayed planted against the edge.
Emma walked carefully around to the head of the queen. She kneeled before her, "Why?" She whispered her question as she touched one of the hands resting on the imaginary queen's stomach. Brown, enchanting eyes stared back at her, answering the question for Emma. Emma looked down as if she were ashamed, "She has nothing left to fight for." She looked over to the other little princess.
"Nothing left to fight for?"
"Yeah… everything she's ever loved has been taken from her. She doesn't see the point in fighting for her reputation… she never wanted to be evil. She wasn't supposed to be evil."
"But she's the evil queen!" Alexandra cried.
"Because all the kingdoms made her so!" Emma stood back up, "She doesn't have anyone to fight with, fight for or let fight for her. She doesn't have anything worth protecting…" Emma looked down to the evil queen, "I'm sorry that our people, that my mommy and daddy hurt you; I'm sorry you're in pain." She whispered, "Everyone deserves to be happy. You deserve to be happy. The least I can do is try to make you happy after all the pain my family and allies have brought you."
"NO! Emma! It's a trap! Don't you see?!" Alexandra brought her axe upright and started making her way forward.
"No!" Emma put her hand up, stopping the other girl, "She's just sad and lonely. She's this way because of our parents. If we're the 'good' our mommies and daddies fought for, then the least I can do is show her a little kindness." She stared the other princess in the eyes, "Go on. You shouldn't get all mixed up in this. This started with my momma, but I have to end it. Rally the troops and go home. I'll be fine. I promise."
"Emma, no!" Alexandra tried, "I'll stay too."
"No. Go on. She's not gonna hurt me, I promise."
"You can't guarantee the actions of an evil witch!"
Emma smiled, "I can." She motioned for Alexandra to go, "I'll be fine."
Alexandra looked at the other princess with desperate eyes before she nodded and ran out of the center of the maze and started winding herself back to the entrance.
Emma laid down on the bench behind the evil queen. She wrapped her arms around the imaginary girl protectively, "I can try to make you happy." She swallowed, "I have to warn you though, I don't feel a lot of things, I don't get all gooey and emotion-filled. My momma and daddy think it's because of you. I'm not sure if they're right or wrong, but I know logicalistically that good shouldn't hunt down evil and take their life for something they don't even know hurt their baby." She sighed, "I'm not supposed to know that they did that, but I do. And I don't think you deserved death."
Alexandra had tears in her eyes as she ran out of the labyrinth and towards the large patio that the queens were sitting for tea at.
"Momma! Momma!" She cried as her feet carried her as fast as they could go.
"She stayed! Emma sacrificed herself!"
Snow and Ella looked to one another then to the tiny princess, "Alexandra, what do you mean?"
"We went to the Evil Queen's castle to defeat her, and we found her waiting to die, so Emma decided that she needed to stay to make her happy because we had made her so sad to begin with! Momma! She's staying for our ill deeds! It's not right! She can't stay with the evil queen! She can't!" Alexandra buried her face in her mother's neck.
Snow rubbed the girl's back as she moved around to look at her, "Alexandra, the Evil Queen is dead… She can't hurt anyone, and she can't be in pain… We made sure of that before you were born."
"Then how come Emma is with her in her castle?!" Alexandra cried. "Please, Snow! We have to get her back! We have too!"
Snow and Ella looked to one another before they stood up, "Okay. Let's go get her. Where is the queen's castle?" Ella asked.
"In there…" Alexandra pointed to the hedge maze.
The queens looked to each other, knowing that their girls had scared themselves (or at the very least, Alexandra had been scared and Emma mimicked) many a time going in there alone before they made their way through the maze. They found Emma asleep on the bench, sword and shield on the ground.
"I think it's far pastnaptime. Especially since someone refused to sleep on the way here." Ella said to the girl in her arms.
Snow looked surprised as she bundled Emma up, "You still have naptime?" Her soft tone sounded jealous. "Emma only naps on rare occasions." She added as they made their way out of the maze once more.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma woke up a couple hours later. She looked around, seeing that she was in her bed and yawned as she crawled out. She wandered, looking for her mother—and maybe a snack, before finding her in the library.
"Mommy?" Emma asked as she crawled into her mother's lap.
"Yes, princess?"
"I'm hungry."
Snow chuckled, "Well, you've had a busy day. I'm not surprised."
"May I have something to eat?"
Snow nodded, "Of course, but first, I want to talk to you about something…"
Emma crawled from her mother's lap to the table in front of them and looked at her, "What?"
"Alexandra came running from the hedge maze screaming that you sacrificed yourself to the evil queen because of our ill deeds…"
"So…"
"It's not the first time you've done that while playing 'Evil Queen'…"
"I know." Emma nodded.
"Why do you do it?"
"Because."
"Why?"
"Because everyone deserves to be happy. Everyone should get a chance to be happy." Emma shrugged.
"Your father and I gave her plenty of second chances."
Emma's tone was plain, factual. "But none of them were a shot at happiness. They were second chances for her to prove herself for the bad things she was forced into…"
"And how was she forced into them? You know her story. You know why she came after me. Why was she forced to try and take my life?"
"Because you took Daniel's." Emma was nothing if not frank in conversations with anyone. It was part of that not being able to feel emotion she'd come to realize about herself. She was able to say things most wouldn't.
Snow had to take a moment to wipe the shock from her face and to make sure her voice wouldn't be raised and angry when she spoke, "I didn't kill him."
"But kind of you did." Emma's manner was still matter-of-fact as stood and started pacing the table. The only thing that ever seemed to work her up in any way was when someone brought up the Evil Queen. No one knew why, though they assumed it had to do with that curse Regina put on the White Princess.
Emma knew her mother was getting upset, but she couldn't stop herself from continuing, from defending the Evil Queen. "You always tell me to put myself in other people's shoes to see if things I say are mean or hurtful. Have you ever put yourself in her shoes? She asked you not to say anything to her mother because her mother was mean and hurtful. She wanted to run away with her boyfriend because he actually loved her. But then her mother says things that made you feel sad and want to fix their relationship and Regina's words and your promise weren't with you anymore."
Emma stopped pacing and looked at her mother, "Then her mother pulled his heart out and crushed it to dust because of your broken promise. Because you told her what was happening. She spent years trying to even the score, to make you feel even a little bit of the pain she felt, but that could never be done because you always had plenty of people that cared about you enough to protect you. She didn't have anyone. She'd had Daniel… and then she didn't." Emma sat back down, "And she lived in pain for the rest of her life. Time didn't heal her wounds. It healed yours; you moved on. But she couldn't ever move on because when her mother crushed his heart, I'll bet anything she might as well have crushed her heart too."
Emma took her mother's face, "I can't feel all the emotions. And you claim that is due to the Evil Queen and that when you realized it, it was the final straw. And she's dead and I still can't feel 'em. I can't feel 'em, but I do understand them, and I do think I know more things 'cause I can't feel them. I think I know what people feel even though I can't feel. And that's what I think happened to her. I've heard her story a thousand times. I've heard you tell her story, I've heard maids, Red, Belle, daddy, Thomas, Ella—even Rumplestilskin tell bits and pieces of her story. And I think that's how she felt in the world. And now she's dead, and sure it's over, but…" Emma shrugged, "I thought the good side didn't kick a dog when it's down. And that's what it seems like happened to me."
Snow shook her head, "You… are so smart and bright and lovely. And there might be aspects that you are right about regarding the Evil Queen, but darling, do not doubt that we did everything we could before we had to put an end to it. Put an end to the evil in this world."
"I don't." Emma said as she let her mother pick her up and walk with her to the kitchen to get that snack—and hopefully go find Alexandra. I just think that there are two emotional sides to every story, and there is good and there is evil and evil isn't born, it's made. And I think she was made evil for your story and that automatically made you evil in hers… She thought as her mother carried her down the hall.
"Let's get you something to eat, my dear."
AN: Hope you enjoyed! Thoughts and feels? Please read and review. I will be posting chapter three in the next 24 hours!