"What would happen?" Artie looked at the other three.
"What would happen when?" Chip asked as he looked at the other prince.
"What would happen if we didn't fight?" The youngest royal prompted.
They looked to one another in thought. None of them knowing what to say. Emma had knit brows on her face, Artie questioning eyes, Alexander a quivering lip and Chip the same expression he always seemed to have when things became serious.
"They'd wait us out. None of us would leave until we fought." Alexander finally answered. "This land, the Queen's court? They're old, strict and don't take kindly to people not doing as they're instructed."
"Especially when it comes to a battle like this." Emma added. "You're kingdom is quasi-lucky, Artie. It's run by ogres, and that was the best thing that could have ever happened to it because it's been prosperous since Shrek and Fiona took on running your country. That's why this is hard for you to see, but Alexander is right. They will force us to fight."
"Would it really be so bad if we waited until then? Until they made us. Would it really be so bad if we tried to refuse?" Artie asked, "I mean, I'm pretty new to all of this… Royalty stuff, but it seems that customs are old and dated because no one has tried to change them…"
"So, what? We just walk out and do nothing?"
"Yes. We can sit as we are now." Chip said with a hint of a grin.
"Have a conversation?" Emma couldn't help the growing smile on her face. She looked to Alexander then the other two and back to Alexander, "They're right… The least we can do is try…"
Alexander nodded, "If we're really going to do this, we probably shouldn't even have a conversation. If we do, and if we get in an argument or something that can be twisted to be perceived as an argument, they might take that before they make us fight."
All of them nodded in agreement before standing up, stretching limbs.
"So, we'll walk out after our name is called, make a big show of our weaponry and then when the battle bell sounds, we walk here and sit." Chip looked to his competitors.
"Aye." Came from the other three.
"We must go before someone else sees and gets suspicious."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma walked in the corridor that Maleficent and Aurora were put in. Aurora was being kept in the living room of the quarters and Maleficent was still too weak to move from the bed.
The Genie had taken the restraints and neutralized the magic Emma gave them; the free, roaming about, insane princess was the first thing she noticed when she walked into the room. She magicked the door locked and stared at the other princess, "Aurora?"
Aurora was pacing, pulling at her hair once more, "They're coming. They're so mad. So mad. So very mad. And that's why they come. Because of the madness. The anger. The anger brings them. None of us are safe. Not really. The safe goes away at one point. And it stays away."
"Aurora? Are you talking to me?"
Aurora stopped stalk still and slowly turned her head, snapping it into an intimidatingly scary tilt. The crazy in the princess's eyes didn't help the eerie feeling now coursing through Emma's spine. Finally the princess spoke, "They're coming for you!" Her tone was one of warning and pleading for Emma to hear, "They're coming for the pure, the righteous one. That's you and you alone. They'll kill anyone that stands in their way."
"Aurora, who is 'they'?"
"The dark ones. The dark one and his filthy harlot." As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, her body convulsed before her chest stuck out, her head lolled back, and she fell to her knees, "I'm sorry!" she screamed, "I'm sorry!" Finally the princess fell forward clutching her chest. She curled up and rolled slightly on her back. She looked up as tears ran down her eyes.
Emma was already at her side. She just didn't know what she could do. Once she could tell that the pain stopped, she dared to touch the other princess, picked her up and laid her on the couch, "You need to get some rest." She touched Aurora's forehead and let some calming magic flow through her.
Once the princess's eyes were closed, Emma moved to the bedroom. She found Maleficent sitting up, clutching the covers to her form.
"What did you do to her?" the witch's voice held panic and dare Emma think she heard worry?
"Nothing. She's crazy. She talked crazy… Then she felt pain. I only picked her off the floor and tried to sooth her after she calmed."
"You can't sooth her. You can't help her."
"You don't know that."
"I do! I've tried everything!" Maleficent cried as best as the weak woman could. Nevertheless, she had Emma's attention, "Why do you think my magic was drained? I was getting close. I could have saved her."
"And why would you want…" Emma trailed off as she saw Maleficent try to peer through the crack of the door to the living room. She looked at the crack and back to the witch, "Phyllipina. You really are Phyllipina."
Maleficent's face stayed trained to the door, but her eyes moved to the blonde princess, "What did you just say?"
"Your name—Your real name is, Phyllipina?"
"How could you possibly know…?"
"You said you wanted your love. You said, 'I want my love' when you came here yesterday." Emma pointed to the door, "And she said that her love was ripped from her chest. That she loved Phyl and she didn't want to do it, but they made her."
Maleficent looked out the window, "What of it?"
"Is she your love? The love you were talking about yesterday?"
"She is the love I talk about on any given day."
"Yet somehow you still found time to morph yourself to look like me and take kisses from my lover."
The witch didn't look to the princess. She wasn't going to justify the little fun she'd had in the last months. She wasn't going to apologize or tell her that if Aurora had been all there, she wouldn't have done it. She would have done it for the fun of it. She would have done it just to do it. Aurora knew where her heart truly belonged and that was all that mattered. And she didn't need to tell the White Princess any of that.
Maleficent looked to her bed sheet. "They took her from me, put a curse on her, a sleeping curse—the curse I was accused of because I'd have knowledge of it and threatened it upon her mother when I was a new witch." She looked to the ceiling as tears filled her eyes, "When I found her, I thought that that was it. That the torture was over. But it wasn't. They'd enacted the sleeping curse, sure, but what they also did was poison her heart. I had to take it out to save her. She knew why I did it. She was in so much pain. I pulled every string I had to make her heart better; it worked too."
She finally looked to Emma, "And just when we were finally going to be happy, they found us. They told me that the only magic I would perform was that of their bidding. My Briar Rose that I'd worked so hard to cure, watched as they took my heart. They'd made her keep her eyes open to watch the hatchet job they were performing. She begged for them to take hers instead. And they did. Not without cutting mine in half. They gave me the feelings that I had for her and the desperation to keep her safe and alive. They took enough to control us both." She took a breath, "That magic you pulled on me last night? That's what's keeping me alive, it's what's healing me. That small amount of magic you put into me is what is keeping my half a heart beating." She swallowed; she didn't have it in her to say the words, but as she stared at the White Princess, she knew the other blonde knew she was thankful.
To brush off the sentiment, Maleficent looked to the crack in the door, "How often does she come through? How often does she hurt her?" the tears were back in her eyes and she looked down.
"The two encounters I've had, I'd say she did. But I wasn't here during the night, so I've no idea." She looked down, "Maleficent?" the witch looked up from her hands. Emma swallowed, "Aurora said they were the dark one and his harlot…"
The blonde witch shook her head angrily, "Oh, Briar Rose… She got her good for that, didn't she?"
"That's when the pain started, yes." Emma looked at her, "Is it really The Dark One?"
"Yes."
"And Regina's mother?"
"Yes."
"Where are they?"
"On their way here, I'd imagine. You probably pissed them off, bringing me back to life and out of the tower; and blinding and muting Aurora."
Emma nodded once, "And you're not going to tell me how to stop them?"
"Emma dear, if there was a way to stop them, I would have before they took her heart. I would have before they poisoned her heart." She swallowed, "I'd have their heads mounted on my wall if I knew how to stop them."
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Princess, you look as if you've seen a ghost."
Emma looked up to find Baelfire, Pinocchio and Jefferson in the hallway she was stalking down. She sighed, "I guess in some ways, I have…"
"Pardon?" Baelfire asked.
Emma looked at him for only a second before she put her hand up, throwing him magically into the wall with more force than was necessary. She took the few steps over to him, "How do you stop your father?"
"What?!"
"Princess, I think you've gone mad. And that's not good when you hear it from me." Jefferson said as he tried to pull Emma's arm from the air. She threw him and Pinocchio down the hall. She liked them both and gave them a mattress to land on, but she got them away from her and Baelfire.
"Your father. The Dark One. How do you stop him?" She said once more. How she knew The Dark One was Baelfire's father was moot; everyone knew about them or even had an inkling could tell that Regina told her everything. Impatient, she magically squeezed his throat, making it a little harder for him to breathe, when he started kicking the air, she released his neck, but kept him pinned.
"You can't."
"Can you?"
"No. No one can stop him."
"There has to be a way."
"His dagger is the only thing. And he keeps it on his person at all times. He's disguised it so it doesn't even look like a dagger anymore."
"What does it look like?"
"A pendent, I think. Of a swan. He's said it's out of irony. Though no one understands it."
"Princess Emma Louise Swan White, 'Charming' Princess of the White Kingdom." She said as she looked at the wall behind the advisor. She swallowed hard, "What about her? Is there a way to stop her?"
"I don't know." Emma squeezed his throat again, "Ahh! I think her heart. Her heart!"
"Princess!" Regina's voice boomed down the hallway as the five other advisors, the White King and Queen, and Princes Chip, Artie and Alexander made their way down the hall. "Release him at once!"
Emma glared to her ladylove before dropping her arm, effectively releasing Bae, letting him fall to the ground.
"What the hell is going on?" Charming walked over and grabbed his daughter by the scruff of her neck.
"A lot that you and everyone else can't comprehend!" She wiggled from him and pushed him away, keeping him at arms length, "I must get ready for the battle." She didn't look to the Shadow Queen before poofing from the hallway.
Regina was looking at her brother, making sure he was all right when she heard the princess's words. She looked up to see a blue and white puff of smoke fade to nothing. She looked to Bae, "What did she want?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Emma." Regina poofed into the princess's quarters to find her not there. "Emma." This time she tried the stables, thinking the blonde was with Ice. No dice. "Emma." She went to her own quarters but again found no one.
"My Queen?" The Genie had poofed into her living room, calling to her bedroom, hoping he wasn't interrupting anything.
"Yes, Genie?" Regina walked out of her bedroom, despondent as ever.
"The Battle is about to commence."
"Ah, yes. The battle in which the court gets to watch and determine who will stay and who will leave based on bravery and know-how." Regina shook her head. She spoke softly after closing the distance between her and the advisor, "Have they any idea?"
"No, my Queen." Genie smiled, "They are pompous and arrogant. They do not see what most assuredly everyone else sees."
Regina nodded, "You're sure?"
"I'm positive."
"Let us go then. Can't keep my people waiting."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma tied the sash on her arm while she listened to the murmuring crowd. Every so often she would hear her name, Chip's, Alexander's or Artie's. She was sure it was discussion on who would win the battle and why.
She almost felt sorry for the crowd. That they weren't going to get what they came for. She hoped they'd still walk away with smiles on their faces.
She heard the trumpets sound, announcing the court, and a moment later, she heard it once more—this time the beat was jolly—announcing the Shadow Queen, her advisors and the other royals. She heard the cheering crowd settle, no doubt Regina had a hand up asking them to calm.
"Afternoon my good people." Regina's voice took over the stadium. "I'm sure that you all are aware that Sir Gustave and Prince Dunstan were both unfortunately eliminated yesterday. That leaves this battle today between Prince Chip of Enchanted West, Prince Alexander of Enchanted East, Prince Artie of Far, Far Away and Princess Emma of Enchanted North." A rousing applause bellowed in the stadium and simmered once more, "I shall not take any more of your time than needed. Announcer? Please let the battle begin."
The announcer took his place and cleared his throat. "In corner number one, please welcome Prince Artie." The applause was insatiable.
"In corner number two, let's hear it for Prince Alexander." Again, there was an eruption.
"Corner number three. Princess Emma." Emma took a breath and walked out of the door as it lifted to release her. Seeing everyone cheering for her, seeing the crowd wanting her to win made her want to fight. Almost. But as she looked to the other two, she kept her wits. She raised her hand and smiled her winningly charming smile.
"And corner number four, Prince Chip!" Chip's applause was louder than anyone else's. He was the clear favorite—at least the favorite that more people weren't scared to cheer on.
"Let the battle..BEGIN!"
The four competitors looked to one another before smirking and strutting to the center of the stadium. The entire crowd waited with bated breath as they saw each player closing in on each other. When they each took a seat, the stadium was silent.
A voice in the crowd rang out, "What we waitin' on?!"
All four of them continued sitting.
"They're havin' a sit down. They're refusing to fight! Going against the court!" The excitement in this voice seemed to spur excitement in the rest of the crowd.
Lord Smith stood from his seat, "Your Majesty? What are you going to do about this?"
"Do about what?"
"Them! The competitors! If they don't fight, then there is no way to know their strengths."
"All due respect, Lord Smith, doesn't the fact that they are refusing to fight someone that's not an enemy show a rather large strength in each of them? And don't we already know their strengths? Haven't we already studied them?"
"Are you suggesting that we let them not fight?"
"I'm suggesting that we let them not fight against each other, yes. We should have put them against a dragon, hydra, monster—something magical and majestic—to show who would truly win."
"What a truly maaarvelous suggestion, dearie."
The voice was heard all around. Everyone felt as though it was coming from just behind them.
"Put them against a magical, majestic being and see who comes out alive? So that, what? You'll have a fighting chance when mommy and me come for a visit?"
Regina stood, anger, fear laced in her throat, "Show yourself, Rumplestilskin!"
"Very well."
A black cloud started appearing in the center of Artie, Emma, Chip and Alexander. They were quick to shuffle backward and after making it to their feet, take about twenty more steps back. This also led to a chaotic crowd trying to escape the confines of the arena, and mad, crazed crying of the court and royals. It also led to Regina's heart beating at an all too rapid pace.
Emma immediately ripped her armband off and threw a fireball at it, destroying the power it contained.
After the black cloud faded and revealed Cora and Rumplestilskin looking like the regal couple they weren't, arms around each other, Cora's hand to his chest, Cora turned to the blonde girl on the floor, seeing what she had destroyed. "Oh, my dear. It won't matter if you've magic or not. You'll not survive when we're done with you."
"It was you." Emma stared the brown eyes, so similar to her love's yet so completely different, so evil. She narrowed her own, "You were literally taking her over, talking to me."
"You want a reward for figuring that out?" Cora started making her way to the princess, "Very well." She formed a fireball in her hand, "Here it is."
Emma threw her arm out before the older witch could throw the fire, effectively throwing her across the stadium. Then signaled to Artie and Alexander to try to retreat and get the hell out of dodge before looking to Chip, telling him that she had no idea what she needed him to do, if anything, but if he wanted to help her then he was allowed.
Chip nodded and his irises were quick to turn yellow.
Rumple had watched as Cora was thrown into the wall. After watching his lover huff and slowly pick herself up, he smirked as he looked over to the White Princess, "Impressive, dearie. I don't know a lot of people that can do that."
Emma smirked as the older woman finally stood up, "Next time, don't make such a show. Just get on with it, you old hag."
Cora glared into her very soul. "Very well, Princess." She flashed back over to the blonde and grabbed her throat, "As you wish." She squeezed, trying to make the blonde pass out.
Emma though, drew her battle-axe and made as if she were giving the evil witch a hug, one of the blades ready to cut between two vertebrae. She inhaled as best she could, "You sure you want to still be here? One push or pull on my end and you're split in twain."
Cora was quick, but Emma was quicker. They separated, Cora still making it a show with a lively twirl to distract the blonde from the fact that she stole a dagger.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Genie!" Regina growled and turned her advisors and the chaotic royals. She waived a hand so that they would all calm a bit and not yell frantically. "Get all of them out of here. Get them to the safe room." She saw that she had all her advisors attention, "All of you." She stared pointedly to Graham, Hook and Bae, "All of you will stay with them, protect them."
"Yes, your majesty."
Regina turned to see what was happening on the field before yelling again, "And get Grace!" She pointed to the Genie telling him just how important getting the toddler was.
"Yes, your majesty." He nodded before poofing himself and the royals out of the arena.
What Regina saw next had her frozen with fear.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Cora turned back to the princess and threw with an accuracy that would make Robin Hood cower in fear.
Emma didn't have time to move. She didn't need time to move, though. Just as the blade was going to connect with her eye, it stopped and made its way safely into her belt. Emma, despite the obvious intensity of the situation laughed, "You honestly take me for a novice? Of course I've charmed my weapons to know who I am, to never hurt me."
Rumple laughed, "Cora, dear, I think she might just put up a fight. So, let's give her one, hm?"
Rumple magically pulled Alexander and Artie to him, while Cora pulled Chip to her—or, she tried to pull him to her. Chip had wolfed out and was running her direction anyways, thinking he might just be able to take a bite out of the enemy. Cora put her hand up and froze the boy in place, "Well, my, my. What in the world have we here? A new species?"
Rumple had pulled Artie's and Alexander's hearts out before he looked over to what his lover was doing. "Darling, what did you find? Hm?" He danced a jaunt over to the woman and looked to the werewolf.
"Evolution." Cora raised a brow and looked to her lover. "What it must be like to control you?" She smirked before reaching her hand into Chip's chest and plucking his heart.
"You two." Cora pointed to Alexander and Artie, "Come here." They followed their orders, "Hurt her, beat her, I don't care, but bring her back here submissive and alive."
AN: Read and Review, please! Thoughts and feels?