Hey everyone! Please note, at the end of this chapter I ask for a little bit of reader participation for how I continue the story. Read on to contribute your opinion!
Also, I have been using this to procrastinate, but I really should be studying for my standardized test in my spare time, so I decide to combine the two activities! I am going to include at least 10 SAT/GRE words in each chapter, killing two birds with one stone. I'm really just doing this for me, but if you are in a similar boat studying for either one of these tests, feel free to benefit! I'm working from a list of 5,000 words, so I don't think I'll get through them all, but I can get through some of them at least. The words are bolded, and if you ask, I'd be happy to include definitions at the bottom. Also, if you find the words are taking something away from the narrative voice, let me know and I'll stop.
Emma wished her mother would stop protesting. Her harried whispers carried in the silence of the night, and Regina's guards were sure to hear.
"… if we just wait one more day, I can send word to Charming and they can come here from Neverland and we can figure something out together."
"I'm not waiting one more day," Emma huffed adamantly as she trudged her way forward through the brush. "I want answers, and I want them now."
Snow knew better than to argue with her daughter when she was on a mission, but she had followed her to the castle anyways, shooting protests at her but in actuality just wanting to protect her should she need a buffer.
Emma halted behind a tree, peering around it stealthily as the hard iron spikes of the castle came into view, catching in the moonlight.
"We should wait for back up," Snow tried again. "The castle is heavily guarded, there's no way we can get in without…"
"I happen to be pretty skilled at breaking and entering," Emma breathed, her face dark and set, "and in all my experience I've learned that the fewer people, the better."
"But if we just…" Snow started, but Emma swung around and looked her sharply in the face.
"I'm doing this," she said firmly. "Tonight. I'm breaking in, I'm going to find Regina, and I'm going to make her tell me everything. Now, are you coming with me, or not?"
Emma held Snow's gaze, forcing her to answer. Snow hesitated for a moment, trying to think of something else to say to deter her daughter from this hasty scheme, but as she saw the resolution in Emma's eyes, she knew it would be no good. If there is one thing she had passed onto her daughter, besides her chin, it was her tenacity.
"Fine," she sighed, nodding. "Alright, yes. I'm coming."
"Good," Emma hissed. "Then shut up!"
The pair padded quietly up behind the castle, avoiding detection by the guards marching in front by staying in the shadows. Thanks to Snow's intimate knowledge of the structure, having been an adventurous child who had weaseled her way into every corner and crevice of her summer home, they did not even attempt to breech the front gate. They crept around the back of the building to a smaller back door. Two guards stood watch outside it, but Emma was confident they could best just two if they had the element of surprise on their side. The trick was doing it quietly so they did not raise the alarm.
She left her mother in position while she crept closer with the nimble, lithe skill of someone raised sneaking around in dark places. She pressed her back up against the wall of the palace and slid her way along it's girth until she was right behind one of the guards, still in the shadows. She flashed her eyes to where she'd left Snow, hiding, to signal she was in place.
An arrow flew from the darkness and hit it's target expertly. One of the guards fell to the ground. In the moment of time when the second guard startled, before he was able to call for help or release any kind of exclamation, Emma emerged, wrapping her hands around his neck and twisting until she felt him fall unconscious. She stood their, standing over the two bodies, as Snow came to join her.
"Nice work," he mother complimented, frowning.
"You too," Emma offered through her heavy breathing, returning her scowl.
Snow led the way to Regina's bed chamber, ducking every once in a while down a narrow, hidden corridor as they heard the footsteps of interior guards approaching. Emma fell behind for a brief moment as they drew closer when she passed a door that had a playful, childish sign on hanging on it that read 'Henry'.
She stared at it and felt a deep longing. Her son was probably asleep right behind that door. Snow retraced her steps and came to stand beside her, reading the lettering with a sad, knowing look on her face. She gave her daughter's hand a sympathetic squeeze, then motioned for her to continue to follow.
"It's right up here," she whispered. Emma glanced back one final time at the door with her son's name as she followed.
Regina was not in her room, but it did not take long for her to return. Emma and Snow backed into the shadow of the open door, waylaying their opportunity to strike. Regina entered and strode up to the mirror beside her bed, facing herself in it. Emma did not give her time to speak.
"I warned you not to under estimate me, Madam Mayor," she growled in a low voice, positioning herself behind Regina. The queen looked up suddenly to see the blonde reflected over her shoulder in her mirror. She only had the time to whip around before Emma's hand perforated her chest and closed her grasp around her heart. Regina didn't have time to be shocked as she felt the sensation she had seen so many of her own victims experience as she watched from the other side. Emma paused menacingly, her hand still wrapped around Regina's heart in her body. Regina gasped a bit, her lips slightly parted, her eyes flickering to where Snow had emerged behind her daughter, her face stony.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before you showed up," Regina said, trying to pull her usual nefarious grin, although she fell short as she attempted to cope with the strange tightness in her chest. "I see you've learned a new trick, Ms. Swan."
Emma's fist clenched still tighter.
"What did you do to him?" she bit fiercely.
"I didn't do anything to him," she repudiated.
"Liar!" Emma hissed. "He has absolutely no memory of me, so don't stand there and tell me you did nothing."
"I'm not lying," Regina protested, and Emma looked into her eyes and saw that it was true. She took a step back. Then, with a squelching noise, she pulled the muscle she was holding from Regina's chest. Regina gasped slightly, then looked down at it pulsing and red in her palm.
"Then explain to me why my son has no idea who I am," she enjoined. She flicked the muscle and Regina sat on the end of her bed. "Tell me everything."
Regina drew a deep breath, starting at Emma with abhorring eyes, as if she were wondering if she could resist obeying, but she knew she couldn't.
"He did it to himself," she explained, bitter disappointment in her voice. "When I first brought him here, he was miserable. I thought it would wear off in time. That maybe he'd learn to be happy in the land where I grew up, the land he always wanted to visit. But it didn't get any better. In fact, it got worse. Then, about two months after we left Storybrooke, he went missing for almost a week. I sent every rider I had out looking for him. They found him at an old abandoned cabin." Regina looked at Snow. "A place you are quite familiar with, if I recall."
"The dwarves cottage!" Snow gasped.
"He knew where it was from his book. I think he went there on purpose. I think he'd been planning it for a while, because he knew what was in there," Regina continued. Emma racked her brain. She had read that book cover to cover several times in the months Henry was missing, familiarizing herself with the land and history she was about to dive into. What would Henry have sought in the dwarves house? Her eyes widened.
"The potion," she whispered, remembering the small vile Rumpelstiltskin had given Snow to forget Charming. Regina nodded.
"There was some left. I don't know what he added, but it was more than just something of yours, Ms. Swan. Because when he drank it, he didn't just forget you. He forgot the curse and Storybrooke. He forgot everything."
Emma was physically struggling not to throttle the heart in her hand, not just due to her rage at it's owner, but also due a sheer tense and trembling sensation she felt creeping over her entire body as she tried to reign her panic in and maintain an intimidating, aggressive face.
"In all honesty, at first I thought I couldn't have done it better myself," Regina continued. "This was a way for him to be with me and not constantly be sad and missing the rest of his family. He could finally be just mine, truly and only mine. But it just made things worse. He's still sad now, he just doesn't know why."
"He thinks he's crazy," Emma accused, warm emotion filling her voice. "He thinks there is something wrong with him because he's sad all the time, like he's missing something he can't remember, because he literally can't remember it. But he thinks it's all in his head. And you're not helping him. You're doing exactly what you did before, just sitting there, content to let him think he's the one who's wrong."
"What would you have me do?" Regina asked viciously. Though she could not stand and advance on Emma for the accusation, Emma felt a thermal flare in the heart she held that told her that she wanted to. "You think he'd believe me if I told him the truth?"
"You just don't want to face up to what you've done to him," Emma argued. "Because explaining it would mean you'd have to fess up to all the crap you've put him through to his face and watch as he learns all over again what a monster you truly are."
"I assume you haven't told him any of this?" Regina said. "Told him who you are and how you really know him? You've held off for the same reason I did – because it will hurt Henry to know the truth."
"He's already hurting," Emma protested Regina's logic. "Grieving the loss of someone is one thing, but grieving the loss of something you can't even remember? He doesn't deserve it!"
"It won't matter," Snow said from where she had been latent, watching the scene unfold before her behind Emma's shoulder. "When I drank the potion to forget Charming, he came and found me and reminded me who he was, but I still didn't love him back. It wasn't about reminding me who he was, it was about reminding me who I was."
Emma was losing control of herself and her emotions. After all she had gone through, once again she found herself in the position where Henry would get hurt, no matter what she did. No matter what anyone did.
"Well, you have the power now, Ms. Swan," Regina purred, a strangely accepting grin creeping onto her lips as she looked at her own heart in Emma's hand. "I can only imagine this is exactly the opportunity you were hoping for. To have my heart in the palm of your hand so you can crush it. I'm assuming that's why you had the imp teach you how? I know how hard a trick it is to learn, so I'm sure you didn't just pick it up all by yourself."
In that moment, Emma desperately wanted to take her up on her suggestion.
"Actually, I was going to give it to Henry," she said, and watched as Regina blinked, a modicum of understanding spreading on her face. "I was going to give him yours and mine both, because that's who they belong to. It's who they should belong to. Then he wouldn't have to choose anymore. He wouldn't have his family torn apart like he has his entire life."
A few tears leaked their way down Regina's cheeks as she realized what Emma was saying. She wasn't exactly sure if they were tears of anger or remorse or love for her son, but they came nonetheless.
"But you've thrown quite a wrench in that plan," she breathed, taking a step towards Regina so that she towered above her. She reached down and slowly placed her heart back inside her warm body, her eyes also moist, but at the same time cold and hard. "You keep this. Henry deserves better."
Emma released the heart inside Regina's chest, and Regina blinked as she drew a long breath, her self-control returned to her. When she opened her eyes, the pair was gone. She sat alone in her room, trying to calm her breathing.
In the next chapter, we take a break from our heroines and see what's happening to our boys on board the Jolly Roger. But in order to finish that chapter, I need a little help from you guys.
I have two options for the way this story could go. I don't want to keep our boys and girls separated for too long, because that's no fun. So either Charming, Neal and Hook can come to the Enchanted Forest and we can continue the story there, or Emma, Snow, and Red (and Henry and Regina) can end up in Neverland and we go from there.
Here's where you come in – you get to decide! Which one do you want to see? Do you want the story to continue in a familiar setting, or go to a new place we haven't seen before? The voting polls are now open – go!