Regina, Emma and Alexander all walked into the throne room regally like the royals they were, to find the rest of the royals and the advisors arguing like royals and nobles shouldn't.
Regina rolled her eyes. She would have to resort to a tactic she'd learned from schooling she'd observed of the commoners. She'd found when used, it made the royals (or the court more often) feel like a bunch of fools.
She took a breath, "If you hear my voice clap twice."
Emma and Alexander both looked at her with confused expressions.
So, she gave them a directed stare, and without raising her voice, she said again, "If you hear my voice clap twice."
They both clapped twice and turned their confused looks to one another.
Again, the Queen of the Shadow Lands turned to the room, "If you hear my voice clap twice."
The succession of claps from the Prince and Princess at the Queen's side alerted Prince Arely and his fathers, who were just enjoying the show at this point, to their presence. The three men clapped twice after Emma and Alexander. Regina nodded her thanks to them, as she saw this getting a few of her advisors' attention.
"If you hear my voice clap twice." She said a fourth time.
Jefferson, Pinocchio, Genie, Eric, Ariel, Arely, Emma and Alexander all clapped together. This garnered everyone else's attention. Graham, Hook and Bae all seemed disappointed that they didn't hear their Queen's voice.
She said it one more time for their benefit, knowing her advisors liked the childish game, "If you hear my voice clap twice."
Everyone in the room clapped two times; Graham, Hook and Bae all had smiles of thanks on their faces while they did, everyone else of course felt like fools as predicted. She subtly rolled her eyes and hid her chuckle from the room as she looked at everyone, "Why have I walked into a warzone?" She looked to all of them.
Jefferson and Pinocchio took a step forward and raised their hands in canon.
Pinocchio stuck his hands out, palms up and shrugged in a 'why not?' manner as he spoke, "If we may…"
Regina stared at him a moment then looked straight to the back wall, "I can't believe I am allowing you two to do this in the presence of all this royalty, but I see I've no choice and have many piqued interests." She looked back to the two men, "Just keep it short… As short as possible."
Jefferson knit his brows, "As if we deliver information any other way…"
With the roll of the Queen's eyes, the unimpressed purse of her lips and a snap of her fingers giving everyone chairs to sit in where they stood, the two gents started.
"You see, when we came in, all was silent." Pinocchio started them off.
"Yes, but the tension was thick."
"'Tis true. I almost looked for my wittling knife."
Jefferson gave his friend a look, "Of course you wood."
Pinocchio's brows rose in delight, "Oh, a pun! How fun! A pun."
"I thought you might enjoy it."
"So the tension was thick?" Emma asked, trying to get the show on the road for her Queen.
Regina looked over to the blonde, "Princess, if you try to make them go faster, they go slower…"
Jefferson pointed to the two women, "That is true, but not today."
"No, today is more important than all the other days."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because today is the day that we knock another man out of the competition…"
"Oh, right, of course. Do go on."
"So, we felt the tension right away."
Jefferson looked up to his Queen, "Naturally, we thought it best if one of the advisors try to understand what exactly was happening."
"And what we found was not one, not two, not even three or four, but an entire hand's worth—right hand in Hook's case—"
"Watch it, friend." Hook gave the former puppet a look.
Pinocchio raised his hands and finished his sentence as if not having been interrupted, "Of problems all stemming from the jousting event."
"Five problems? Really?" Regina asked.
"Yes, number one!" Jefferson started again, "Is Sir Patrick in fact disqualified?"
"It seems that some think he should be and some think he shouldn't be."
"Indeed. We all know his potential, we all know his titles."
"There's talk of wanting a rematch."
"And if the two of them get a rematch then everyone should…"
"So some of the royals think…" Pinocchio looked straight at his queen while he and Jefferson pointed specifically to some of the royals whose competitor failed a round or two.
"Yes, and some royals decided that the entire competition needs to start over."
"Mhmm, and that a certain Prince needs to be put back in…" They both pointed to Kings Ariel and Eric, who took to pointing at each other and looking around as nonchalantly as possible.
"We're not sure how, but this moves us on to number two." Jefferson stated.
"Yes, number two." Pinocchio cleared his throat before lunging forward and pointing dramatically at Emma causing the blonde to jump back in her chair next to the queen's throne a bit, "Should not the White Princess's magic give her an automatic disqualification?!"
Regina looked up and sighed, "Honestly," she whispered, giving Julie Andrews a run for her money.
"We are being honest, my queen." Jefferson assured, "It seems that some of the royals think that Emma will magic her way to the throne."
"However, the White King and Queen pointed out that their 'little princess'—" Pinocchio stopped, knowing Jefferson was going to interrupt him.
"That's just precious!" He grinned and pointed to the blonde, "'Little princess.'" He chuckled as the princess pulled her feet up to her chair and sunk down, reddening profusely.
"Yes, the little princess was already in line for a throne and didn't need to use her magic to get her anywhere."
"Then a certain King decided to point out that the White King and Queen did not know that the little princess even had magic until this afternoon."
Both men pointed to King Thomas, who tried to act innocent, shaking his head.
"And from there… it escalated." Pinocchio said, "But let's just say that we separated the Kings and put them in respective corners."
Emma popped out from hiding behind her legs and looked at her flustered father. She grinned wide at him before looked to Alexander, who was only shaking his head as he looked to his father.
"My Daddy beat up your Daddy." She spoke softly, however most everyone could hear her.
"For good reason." Alexander nodded with a smirk gracing his lips.
"Excuse me prince and princess. We have the floor right now and we need to move onto number three." Jefferson said, mimicking a young, know-it-all, diva royal. He threw is invisible locks over his shoulder as he looked to the queen, "This also involves the Princess."
"Yes, and the funny thing is, no one actually seems to have issue with it, only question…"
"Number three. Should the White Princess actually be in the competition at all, given her gender?"
"Yes, and to be brief—"
"Yeah right. Cough, cough." Emma said as she looked to the queen. She found the woman glaring back at her.
Jefferson gave her a glare as well. "TO BE BRIEF…" He said turning back to his friend and clapping his shoulder, telling him to continue.
Pinocchio nodded and looked up to the queen, "All of the kings and queens are in agreement that no one cares about who we love, but a few of them refuse to defy the old ways…"
"Which brought about the fourth problem: The tensions between the new and old kingdoms."
"It goes without mentioning that there are two progressive lands represented here. There are two kingdoms that have passed progressive laws, but are still old in their ways, and four—five including our own that are old world."
"And for the most part, want to stay that way…" Jefferson and Pinocchio both pointed to Emma's and Alexander's parents.
Emma couldn't help but subtly turn her head, "Well, that's a little ironic, don't you think?"
"Too ironic…" Alexander rolled his eyes.
"But there are the other kingdoms that are indifferent or want to move forward—"
"Just to clarify," the queen interrupted, "What are we moving forward with, explicitly?"
"Regina…" Emma said softly so only the queen heard, and stared at her like it was a silly question.
Regina raised her hand to silence the princess and nodded her head to the men in gesture for them to continue.
"Well, the right for love, my Queen." Pinocchio started and looked to the ground.
"The right to marry for love and not obligation." Jefferson followed Pinocchio's motion, looking down as well, neither wanted to actually say it.
"They're arguing over keeping the laws against royal queer marriage in tact or actually moving forward into today's world." Hook, ever blunt, stood from his chair, hand on his hip in a huff.
Regina looked down at her knees, "Ah, I see. So the conversation stemmed from whether or not Sir Patrick is disqualified, which should be the only issue at hand…" She paused and looked down at all the Royals as she stood and walked gracefully down the few steps to the main marble floor, "To the Princess needing to be eliminated automatically from her alleged use of magic, to her being a woman, to her being a woman and my being a woman." She pursed her lips, "And all the royals are gathered around arguing about that." Her tone was scolding and each and every royal felt it.
She walked over to Queens Red and Belle. She took a hand of either royal and kissed the tops of their hands. Then, since they were next to the queens, before she made her apology, she moved to Kings Ariel and Eric. She kissed either of their cheeks, "I apologize vehemently. Please…"
The four royals all smiled with good grace. "Think nothing of it, your majesty." Ariel said.
"Please. You didn't cause the commotion; it is simply old ways." Red continued.
"Yes, you've nothing to apologize for." Belle decided to speak now.
Regina nodded and made her way back to her throne, "You said there was a fifth?"
Jefferson pointed with a grin, "You're absolutely right, my Queen."
"Yes. Rounding nicely back to the competition, number five, why did Prince Alexander seem so concerned?" Pinocchio stated the last question.
Jefferson raised a hand to calm everyone as they were about to start a fuss again for this or that reason, "If you hear my voice clap twice."
Regina put her hands to her hips in threat, "Sir Jefferson."
"No!" he looked up at the queen pleadingly.
"My Queen, that's as far as they got in that one." Pinocchio explained.
Regina closed her eyes a moment before she nodded in understanding with a small smile, "Thank you, gentlemen."
They nodded, turned to the royals and bowed before walking to their places with the rest of the advisor.
Regina looked around, "I'm ashamed with most of the royals in this room, though I shouldn't need to say that. You people can't even conduct yourself properly for two days—"
"Yes, Mom, Pop! I am so disappointed!" Emma stood up and stared at her parents before looking at her dad and giving him a smile, "Except for the..whole..strangling thing, other than that! So disappointed!"
"Same for you Mom and Dad… and Alexandra!" Alexander decided to join in.
"Hey!" The princess was heard in the middle of the seated crowd.
"Honestly…" Regina muttered and shook her head.
"My apologies. I think it's the sitting up here. I feel powerful." Emma started pulling on her collar uncomfortably.
"Indeed." Alexander nodded and they both sat down quickly.
The queen stood and looked around silently preparing them for an announcement, "Sir Patrick as been disqualified. He is resting now. And King Edward, Queen Nancy? Again, you are more than welcome to stay for the rest of the competition."
"Thanks, your honor—I-I-I-I-I-I mean your queen—My Queen… Your majesty.." Nancy looked around, "I'm sorry, I'm from New York, I've been here like 8 years, but I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'll just stop talking now…"
"What's 'New York'?" Prince Chip asked.
Nancy looked a bit perplexed before she realized that she was surrounded by fairytale characters that had never heard of her realm, "It's just a place… It's not in this realm." He looked fascinated, but Nancy pointed to the Queen, "Pay attention." Then mouthed her apologies to the woman.
Regina continued, "Emma will not be eliminated. She's done nothing wrong. She hasn't used magic in a competition yet and she won't be able to."
"How do you know?" Thomas was skeptical.
Emma rolled her eyes, "Because I have to wear this neutralizer in every competition." She sighed and rolled her eyes as she held out her sash for everyone to see, "How many times am I going to have to tell people this?" She muttered before continuing, "The invitation told us to alert the queen if we were able to use magic. I did the evening of our arrival, so she would know to give me a neutralizer."
"She did." Regina nodded, "I assume some of you might recall yesterday morning, Genie gave her the black armband?"
"I can. I hassled her about it." Arely nodded and winked to the princess, "If you lose the competition, Love, I'll marry you."
"You and how many women?" Emma gave him smirk, garnering 'ooooo's from the rest.
"Enough." Regina looked between her love and the man she eliminated the day before, "Let's eat, shall we?"
AN: Read and Review! Thoughts and feels?!