All three princes were doing their best to disobey their orders.
Emma's attention though, was trained on Chip. He was trying to change back to his human form. He would succeed for a split second before wolfing out again.
Emma gave him a look, "It's okay, Chip. Don't fight it if it's hurting you as much as I think it is." She whispered, knowing he would hear it.
"Now this is what I call a Battle Royale." Rumple cackled as he wrapped his arm around Cora and watched the three princes that had grown closest to the princess try and try to turn away from her.
Regina now, leapt into action. She waved her hand, freezing the princes as they enclosed on the princess. She surveyed the scene before her for a moment before poofing down to face her mother and her mother's lover head on.
"Whatever it is you want, take it. Don't come into my kingdom, threatening me and 8 other kingdoms just because you think it will be fun. Take what it is you want and leave us all be!" Regina stared at her mother pleadingly, "Please!"
Emma meandered around the three frozen lads and made her way to stand next to her queen. She saw mother and daughter having a silent battle of their own and knew to keep her mouth shut.
"Very well, your majesty." Cora's lips formed a smirk.
In the time it took Regina to realize that Rumple had vanished a moment, he was already behind her. He was already behind Emma, who she knew was focused solely on her, and he was throwing magical cuffs on her wrists and making quick with a magical gag as well. He threw her weapons and belt on the ground, knowing they wouldn't need them.
"We'll be off now."
"NO!" Regina cried, "You can't take her!"
Rumple potato-sacked Emma and walked back to stand next to Cora. "Oh, but you'll find that we can. And we will. You told us to not threaten the kingdoms, take what we wanted and leave. That was the deal. And, while we didn't sign a document or shake, I gather it was an unwavering verbal agreement." Rumple glared to the Shadow Queen as he pointed at the discarded hearts and magically dropped them at Regina's feet.
"What we want is the White Princess." Cora played with a blonde curl of the princess's mane.
Emma jerked her head from the wicked witch and glared her down.
"My, my you are quite feisty. Just as everyone says." She reached out again and took the blonde's face in her hand, "We'll have such fun together, Emma."
Regina let her hand hover over Emma's axe, and like a magnet it came to her. She tried to act quickly and throw it at her mother, but she, Rumple and Emma flashed away with a puff of black smoke.
Regina fell to her knees.
She was unable to breathe or rationalize what just happened.
Baelfire and the Genie were the only two advisors to disobey her orders and return.
"What happened?" Bae asked after the Genie plucked the hearts from in front of Regina and moved to the frozen princes.
"They took her. They took her? Why would they take her? What had she done?"
"She made you happy." Bae was nothing if not honest, "And she's a Pure One. You know why they came for her… Her magic didn't stem from hatred, anger, despondency, arrogance, or anything the like. It was formed from the complete and utter passion of her parents. It was formed when she was formed. When the gods wanted her person and her power formed. The princess is a rare breed. So rare, her kind had been decidedly extinct by most of the scientists."
Regina only shook her head, "She's not an animal!" She snapped to Bae and spat his word choice back at him, "She's not a breed of some species to be determined extinct by scientists. She's… She's Emma." The tears that formed in her eyes as she recalled their first night together when she said the same thing to the White Princess and she was quick to respond with the same answer she gave her brother. Her tears did not go unnoticed by any of the five men on the field.
"How do we get her back?" Chip asked rubbing his chest with his hand, his inner wolf gracing his face a moment as he adjusted from heartless to having a heart once more.
"Yeah, and how do we keep our hearts in our chests?" Artie added rubbing his own chest.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Cora, Rumple and Emma materialized back in their castle. No one knew for certain where that was because the two put a cloaking spell over it. Emma's axe made a new home in the thick, ominous wall behind them.
"Your daughter's gotten cheeky." Rumple said as he pushed Emma to the ground and stared at the axe.
"Indeed. She must get it from this one." Cora looked down the White Princess with a glare.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma was lying in bed on her back. The bed was comfy and the sheets were to die for. "Regina?" She called as she looked around the bedchamber.
"Yes, my love?" Regina came in from the bathroom. She was wearing white, the color of purity, but nothing about the woman's lingerie was pure. She smirked as she took in the blonde's reaction, "Like what you see?"
Emma's eyes roved over her love before landing on the brown orbs that captured her so, "Always."
"Can you believe we did it?" She walked over to the bed and sat down, "We've finally defeated my mother and her lover." She settled next to the blonde and cuddled close.
Emma smiled and ran her fingers over her love's back, seemingly content until she realized what Regina said. "No we didn't."
Pain.
Immediate pain.
Shocking pain.
It came suddenly and it came hard. Her body convulsed into rigor while her back was fully arched off the hard surface she'd been thrown on.
When her body finally relaxed, she opened her eyes after feeling restraints. She was in a dark room, but a bright light was trained on her face. She looked down to see leather shackles keeping her arms and legs and she felt something on her head. She was too weak to try magic, too weak to try anything. The last three days had been torturous and for the first time, Emma felt that there was a possibility she was going to lose.
"There she is." A voice broke into the silence. "That last one almost got you. But it always brings you back. It's an amazing thing, science." A blonde man in a white coat stepped into her vision, "With it, I can do more things than magic. I can bring people back from the dead. And… I can also kill 'em." He shrugged, then took a breath, "I've conceded that magic is a wonderful, useful thing. But, it is just not the same as science. Magic doesn't let you keep a clean head. And that… that is why your captors have hired me on. They know that I will see things within you that they can't. And you." He paused as he leaned in, "You are quite the.. specimen."
Emma swallowed, or she tried to swallow but her mouth was dry. She tried to lick her lips only to find them chapped. She squeezed her eyes shut before blinking them open to stare at the man, "Who are you?"
"They call me Frankenstein. Doctor… Frankenstein." He grinned.
"What are you doing to me?" She swallowed a dry lump in her throat.
"Me? I'm simply studying you. The magic within you. The powers you probably don't even know you have."
"Why?"
"So that they know exactly what they're getting when we drain you. And when I get your heart."
"My heart?"
"Yes. In my realm, in order to make one alive again, I've to have a magical heart from this realm. Each time I come here to help, I get a heart in payment. And yours… Yours is something that's only ever been talked about in any realm. No one has been able to take the heart of a Pure One in documented history ever before. Until now. When I get your heart, I will make sure to give daily documentation as thorough as my notes are on you now." The doctor almost giggled as he moved from the light, "See… I've been shocking you with a steady current that should have killed any other human magical or no. But you… You don't die. You're still alive. It doesn't make sense! The only thing that it could mean is that you're not human, but that's not true. I've looked at your hair, your skin, your blood. You are quite human."
Emma could only stare at him with unmasked fear as she watched Dr. Frankenstein move about.
He gave her a happily frustrated smile, "Don't you see?!" He stared at her, "Don't you see how truly AMAZING this is?! Come on, Princess! You can't die!" He tilted his head and looked down, "That is until we drain you of all of your magic and take your heart. Then you'll totally be dead. At least you should be." A light flitted to his eyes, "Good God, how amazing it would be if you didn't after all that you'll have to endure? And still after the taking of your heart?" he turned and wrote something in a journal, "You are definitely quite a case study."
Emma's eyes fell shut a moment, a sudden tiredness surging through her, "I've not been tortured enough?"
"Oh, no." He turned back to her, all business, "They have just been testing your knowledge of magic at this point. And I've only been testing your power scientifically. We haven't even started the draining process."
Emma stared at him with rage in her eyes, "I've been beaten, magically stretched nine ways to Sunday, tortured, bound, starved, and what I can only surmise is repeatedly electrocuted and you are telling me that you've yet to get started?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Where is their castle located?!" Charming growled as he slapped the desk in Regina's study with boiling anger. "It's been three days and no action has been taken!"
The advisors that had gathered in the room started to move quickly to the White King to defend their queen, but Regina raised her hand, stopping them.
"I've no idea. I've never needed to know. And I always assumed it better that I didn't. There are times that I would think or act rash and want to take matters into my hands."
Snow stared at the Shadow Queen, "Are you saying that our daughter is not a good enough reason to act rashly for?" Her tone was low, threatening.
"No, your majesty. I'm saying that I need an idea of what I'm to be dealing with before I find them." Regina stood and started gliding to the doorway, "Before I murder them." Her tone was lower and more threatening than the White Queen would ever be able to produce.
Regina left the six advisors and the White King and Queen in the study.
The hatter turned to Pinocchio, "Is it me or was her choice to use 'murder' rather than 'kill' in that sentence just a little…"
"Dark? Menacing? Hostile? Alarming?" Pinocchio provided.
"All of the above?"
"Oh, definitely all of the above." Pinocchio looked to his good friend.
"I've never seen her like this." Graham looked to the others.
"She's on the warpath." Bae spoke up. "She doesn't see anything rationally right now. She sounds as though she's thinking things through, strategizing. She's not."
Charming looked to the six advisors, "Yes, well… She's in love."
All of the advisors and Snow looked to him with surprise in their eyes, "Charming?" Snow had no idea Charming knew of their daughter's and the Shadow Queen's secret love.
"What? Does everyone honestly believe me to be that incredibly dense? I know love when I see it."
"Of course, your majesty. We'd no idea anyone aside from us knew for sure." The Genie covered for the six men.
"I didn't know if you were aware of just how deeply they felt." Snow patted his chest.
"She snuck out at night, stayed out for entire weekends, she smelled flowers, read romance novels, refused to meet potential suitors. She was in love with her long before she entered this ungodly competition."
Snow kissed her husband's cheek, "Yes, I presume she was."
"And now those two have her and we know nothing."
~0~0~0~0~0~
When Emma woke again, she found herself shackled against a wall. The pain was still there and she could only see out of one eye. She could only imagine what she looked like. Probably as battered as she felt.
"For a Pure One, you don't put up much of a fight." Rumple said from a dark corner on the other side of dungeon.
"For the Dark One, your choice of torture is meek at best." Emma glowered as she found the outline of the man she was talking to.
He grinned crazily, "Nnn!" His voice was higher pitched as he made the amused noise. "Listen to all your talk." He sobered, "Tell me, if my methods are so meek, why are you still shackled?"
"I'm just biding my time." Emma's cocky, brave tone didn't falter.
"She's putting on a brave face, Rumple, dear." Cora said as she materialized in front of the White Princess.
"She doesn't want us to know that she fears us because she doesn't want Regina to know she fears us."
"I don't want Regina to have to worry." Emma swallowed, "What you might not realize is that with each passing second you spend with me. Each moment you do or don't do something, say or don't say something, I'm analyzing. Taking in your knowledge of me and my abilities, and taking in your own." She turned and glared to Rumple, "I'm letting you torture me. I can get out of this any time I damn well please." She smirked as the Dark One's eyes narrowed as he took in her words. "So… bring. it. on, Rumplestilskin."
Cora turned to her lover, "Rumple!" She flashed out of the room.
"Excuse me." Rumple bowed, flashing behind the woman.
Emma leaned against the wall with a huff. She closed her eyes and breathed, "Good gods, why did I say that?" She looked to the ceiling, hoping, praying that she would be able to survive this.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Where are they?" Regina's voice was eerily calm as she stood at the foot of the bed Maleficent was in.
"I haven't a clue." Maleficent said, her color was coming back to her and she'd changed into a red silk robe, she looked stronger, but she was terribly weak.
Regina flew forward, suddenly she was hovering over the blonde, a hand to her throat, "Oh, don't play innocent or coy with me! WHERE ARE THEY!?"
"Regina!" The frail woman choked, "I don't…know!"
Regina pushed the blonde into the bed, throwing her down as best she could. She stood up huffing, "I have to find them."
"You can't." Maleficent said softly. She coughed a couple times, trying to gain her breath again, "You can find her though…"
Regina turned back to the magicless witch, "Of course…" The Shadow Queen knew Maleficent was right, but looked off in thought of just how she was going to find her love. She knew she had options, but only one was going to work and she needed to make sure that the path she chose was the right one.
"You need to be careful." Maleficent looked to the other woman, "You know that they have my magic as well. And they are probably draining her as we speak."
"A pure one can't be drained completely without being killed." Regina looked off in thought.
"You think that's going to stop them? You think they're only going to take a little?" Maleficent turned, "They took everything from me."
"Yes, I've heard. It's a wonder your half a heart is still beating." Regina said in a superior tone.
"I've your Princess to thank."
"I know." Regina swallowed, "Need I remind you that if they do drain her, you will more than likely die. Her magic is the only thing keeping you alive, so if anything happens to her, if she dies, then her magic inside you dies as well… Would it not?"
Maleficent nodded once and looked to the sheets as she sat up. She finally looked to Regina's eyes, "Well, as long as I'm alive, I guess we know she's all right."
"I guess we do."
~0~0~0~0~0~
When Emma woke up next—when she woke up to the point of remembering everything that had happened explicitly, she was no longer with Dr. Frankenstein, no longer with Rumple or Cora. She was no longer with anyone.
She was still shackled against the wall Rumple left her at, and the pain was ever prevalent. She could still only see out of one eye, but none of that seemed to matter. It didn't matter because she felt sun on her face. It was a simple thing, but it made her smile. It was the first time she'd felt the sun in a week and a half. She'd been cooped up and tied down in the darkest rooms she's ever seen. She felt frail. She'd never felt frail in her life.
But now she felt sun.
And when she realized that she hadn't moved in the last two days, she opened her eyes and saw a glowing, radiant, beautiful clone of her mother. Or, she supposed the original her mother was a clone of. It's true that the White women all bared striking resemblances of each other, with little tweaks here and there. And this woman was the spitting image of her mother, or again, she supposed, her mother was the spitting image of her.
She never got to meet her grandmother. But she'd heard stories of her kind, fair judgment when people deserved it and harsh punishments that people avoided. And she'd seen her face in plenty of pictures. She swallowed air as she watched the glowing, angelic figure take her beaten, bloody body in.
"Grandmother Eva?" She finally whispered.
"Hello, Emma." Eva smiled.
"Are you an angel?"
Eva chuckled, "Good gods, no. I'd never want to be one of those arrogant things."
Emma knit her brows, "Angels are arrogant?"
"Yes. They don't do good deeds because they want to, they do them because it's their job. They make a competition out of it sometimes." She rolled her eyes, "No, I… I keep to myself mostly. I watch over you all. I've ascended onto a higher plane, but I'm no angel."
"What are you?"
Eva looked up, "I don't know if there's a word for what I am. At least no god has ever told me what I am. I guess I'm a spiritual being."
"Why are you here?"
Eva smiled at her granddaughter, "I'm here to help you."
AN: Another "OH SHIT!" chapter in my opinion. Do you like the two new characters? I hope so. I've had a lot of fun with them both—mainly Eva in later chapters.
Please, Read and Review! Thoughts and feels?
Also, thank Draven260, blu3phyr3 and thewisdomtooth for convincing me to post twice in one day. I will be posting again tomorrow sometime (my tomorrow, which might be the same as yours or it might not…).