final stretch, last three chapters, let's do this~

trigger warning in this chapter for forced attempted suicide? kind of. you'll see.

It takes every fiber of Emma's being to stand still. Beside her, Regina is swaying peacefully, and she forces herself to relax against the wall, eyes lidded to mask the sharpness of her gaze.

Fairy-kindness. Emma had taken the first potion to counteract last night, and it's still in her veins now, her only immunity against what's happening to everyone around her. These are women (and Lancelot) with a perpetual energy about them, dangerous and motionless like lionesses about to pounce, and now they've lost that. Now they're bland and empty and meaningless, every single one of them.

Or…no. Not everyone. Zelena is blinking now, still dazed but her brow furrowing, and she opens her mouth and then gives up, dropping to the ground with her head on her knees.

"What's wrong with her?" Tamara says, staring down, and she doesn't look sleepy-eyed anymore, either. Emma darts a too-hopeful glance at Regina, just in case, but Regina is still swaying like a blade of grass in the wind, just as faceless and uncontained. Emma swallows back fear and struggles to focus on Blue. "What's wrong with all of them?"

Blue frowns. "Zelena, I'm afraid, has developed some resistance to the fairy-kindness that has suffused the rest of the town with…complacency."

"Because of over-exposure?" Tamara sounds sick. "What the fuck did you do to her in Oz?" She reels in place. "Why am I not…" When she inhales, her eyes droop again, but quickly widen back to their initial disbelief. "What did you do to me?"

"I did nothing." Blue smiles pleasantly. "You are less susceptible because of your heritage, of course. It's the same as mine. Why do you think I've chosen you? Why I've given you so much and let you run so far from home?"

"No," Tamara says in horror. "No."

"The daughter of a fairy and a mortal man. I thought, perhaps, it would be a final battle with Zelena that would activate your true self at last." Blue gives her a grave look. "Still, though, there's a chance." She turns in midair, flying toward Regina and Emma, and Emma fights to keep her breath even.

There's a pop! and Blue is standing in front of them, full-sized, as she examines them both. Emma tenses, her chest rising and falling as she forces her reaction away. It's not unlike Henry as a toddler, trying desperately to stop sobbing but without the faculties to control it, and Emma seizes onto that memory, of Henry crawling through Regina's castle and Regina's delighted laugh, until she's calm again.

And Blue doesn't notice Emma's conflict– or maybe she just can't fathom that anyone would resist her. She plucks the book out of Emma's hands and the wand out of Regina's and returns to Tamara. "You see, only a fairy can wield a wand as powerful as this to its full potential. Take it."

"I don't–" Tamara starts, eyeing it as though it's poisoned.

"Take it," Blue repeats, voice like steel. Tamara takes it. "The magic within you will only be magnified with the wand," she says, moving to stand behind Tamara. "But I've been careful with you. All these years since I brought you to Oz, all these years of coddling you with these…toys…" She eyes Tamara's taser with disdain. "And there's only one kind of magic you've kept close. Every step leading up to today has been planned. Wave the wand, my dear."

Tamara looks ill as she raises it. "I'm not…I can't be some kind of fairy." Her eyes are hollow and resigned, though, under Blue's spell even if she isn't affected by the fairy-kindness. Emma writes her off as another loss, same as the others.

"Potential fairy," Blue corrects, but she's hovering again like she hasn't quite lost her wings, fluttering behind Tamara with an expectant kind of hunger.

Tamara waves the wand and stumbles backward as something bright and colorful springs to life in front of her, growing in size and energy as the wand feeds magic to it. A portal, Emma recognizes.

"That's enough," Blue says, setting down the book that she'd snatched from Emma. "Belle!" she barks out. "And Captain, you with her." She smiles beatifically at Belle. "Go home."

Belle walks forward, her steps purposeful and true. Emma stays still, watching with limp movements as Belle steps into the portal, Milah behind her. Blue murmurs something into Milah's ear before she walks into it, and then Tamara waves the wand again and the portal vanishes.

Zelena moans from the floor. Blue says, "Mulan, Lancelot, guard our new arrivals." Aurora and Philip are stumbling in, Aurora still groaning in labor even under the fairy dust influence. "If there is an intruder, kill them." She eyes Emma and Regina with wariness that's actually pretty flattering, if Emma does say so herself. Always nice to know that the head fairy thinks you have the skill to bypass her magic drugs.

Which, well…yeah, apparently. Emma thinks back to the second vial of the potion, still secreted away in the mansion instead of in her pocket. Soon. It's all she has to hang onto now.

Blue turns to them at last. "Regina, Emma." She smiles, and it's unfriendly even now. "Go out through Storybrooke. Dispatch all evil on the way."

Regina starts moving and Emma trails after her, suspicious as always. A blur of movement, a bump against the table while she's lurching to the door, and the book Blue had taken is tucked under her jacket.

Even the fairies are dazed as they flutter through the town. There are people wandering through the streets outside, aimless and uncertain without direction. They catch onto each other and stick, like mobs of swarming ants, and Emma feels her heart land somewhere in her throat. She's alone. She's never felt this alone in her life, even when it's been just her against the world.

But now she has allies and friends– has Regina, has her Merry Men, has all the people who'd lived in their castle last year and fought with them and had been snide and had been real– now she's surrounded by people who aren't people at all. Now the woman she's jogging to keep up with isn't a friend or enemy or lover but an empty husk, stripped of free will.

Blue hasn't just threatened the town. She's commandeered it and done so with more control than even Regina's curse ever has. And Emma– for the first time in her life– can't see a single way out of this nightmare.

Emma grabs Regina's arm. "Hey. Listen. You have to be in there, right, Regina?"

Regina turns a blank face to Emma that has her shuddering. "Dispatch all evil on the way," she says.

It takes everything Emma has to be blasé about this Regina who isn't. "Yeah, yeah. We'll get right on that. Let's dispatch some potion first."

Her voice cracks at the end and goes high, and Regina stares right through her. "Dispatch all evil," she repeats, turning in the direction of the docks.

Emma yanks her back to her, linking their elbows so Regina can't escape as she marches them down toward the mansion. They don't get any odd looks or acknowledgement at all, even when it's Emma half-dragging Regina to the house. "We can find the evil later, okay?" she says soothingly, shoving the door open. "I'm just going to–" She locks the door. "Stay right here. I'll be right down," she instructs Regina, fishing through her bag for some of Beetle's rope and tying the other woman to the stair rail.

Regina is already struggling when Emma dashes upstairs, and Emma moves through her things at top speed, shoving aside a stack of clothes to retrieve the little vial at the corner of the dresser. "Regina?" she calls, descending the stairs again. "I have a little energy drink before we go after all your evil– Oh, shit." The ropes are still tied to the stairs, the end of them blackened and frayed. The front door is open.

Regina is still walking instead of taking that big black death trap of a car, thankfully, and Emma hurries down the block to catch up with her. "You know, I wasn't going to be that kind of girlfriend, but I do wish that you checked with me before you escaped the bondage and ran out of the house? I had a plan, okay?" She's babbling, making jokes before the panic overwhelms her, and empty-eyed people around them don't even seem to notice.

Regina does not laugh. Or slow. At all. Emma considers risking the potion on her now, but she suspects that the sidewalk will get a lot more fairy-kindness resistance than Regina will in this case.

She can't do this alone. She can't–

She keeps up a running stream of commentary as Regina continues to stride toward the docks. "What's up there, anyway? Is Neal still there? I know he was our backup in the whole expose-Glinda plot, but I don't think he or David could be classified as evil."

"Dispatch all evil on the way," Regina recites, and there's something about the order that sounds…not quite right, suddenly. Shouldn't it be along the way? On the way implies that they're on a trip to–

No. No, no, fuck no. "Regina!" she snaps, the terror shooting through her as though she's on fire, but Regina is already heading to the Jolly Roger, boarding it and walking to the far– the deep side. "Regina, wait!"

She manages to wrestle her down once, but Regina flicks her hand and Emma flies against the mast behind her. Swiftly, Regina climbs up onto the ledge, unsteady, and she stares down into the water. "Dispatch all evil," she says, one last time, and there's a flicker of hesitation in her eyes.

Not enough. Emma is sick with dread, stumbling back across the deck with Regina's magic still pounding in her ears. She isn't losing Regina like this, some order of the Blue Fairy's their ending. If they could endure Zelena and Cora and Leopold, they can endure an oversized mosquito with delusions of grandeur. "Regina!"

She raises one leg over the edge and Emma yanks her down by the other, pinning her hands down before Regina can set her on fire. "Wait!" she says desperately. "Wait, Blue said that–" Regina stops struggling for a moment and Emma takes advantage of that to fumble for the vial, uncorking it and pouring the whole potion into Regina's mouth.

Regina chokes, spitting half of it out, and Emma tries her best to push it back in, wincing at Regina thrashing and gurgling words through the potion. "Dispatch– dispatch–"

Her eyes cloud over and then clear, horror on her face. "That fucking fairy," she spits out, furious, and Emma's so relieved that she nearly sobs.

Regina shoots up, looking murderous. "She knew exactly what she was doing," Regina hisses, and she's trembling when Emma curls a hand into her shirt and pulls her into her embrace, both of them still on their knees. "Emma?" Regina whispers, studying her face.

"Yeah," Emma says, shivering. "I think she did." Regina sags into her arms at last, her lips brushing Emma's only briefly as she shudders and quivers with rage. Emma swallows. "But it only worked because you thought…you still think…God, Regina, I can't deal with you still believing that you're evil." She kisses Regina hard this time, trying desperately to convince Regina of something she's never been able to before. She kisses her and Regina kisses her back and oh god, Emma isn't alone anymore but she very nearly was.

Regina curls up in her embrace; silent, her face colorless, her hands still trembling. "I love you," she whispers. "I love Henry. I won't give up."

"You're going to have to do better than that," Emma murmurs, her heart pounding. "Time to be a hero again, right?"

Regina feels nearly frail, delicate and weary and so uncertain. "Time to be something," she whispers, and Emma strokes her hair again and again until she can believe that Regina is real in her arms.

They head down to the vault. As far as Blue's concerned, Regina is probably dead– maybe even by Emma's hand. Rage crawls through Emma at that realization. Even if Blue's planning some grand takeover that has incapacitated them all, she'd still wanted Regina dead and gone. "We have to–"

"Get Henry, I know," Regina says, mixing ingredients and adjusting a flame beneath the vial. "I don't have much left of everything I need. Two potions, tops."

At last, progress. Some kind of way out of this. "Can we get them into the water supply, maybe? Spread it all out?"

"It won't be enough."

Still nothing. Emma inhales sharply, dropping onto one of the chairs in the vault and flipping through the book Belle had brought them. "Did she get this from the library?"

"I would assume she found it in Gold's stores. It's a book about the wand, and the wand is linked to the Dark One." Regina fiddles with the potion. "You remember Quinn's story."

"The Black Fairy falls in love, is pregnant with Blue, has some kind of fight with her husband. She has the wand, he has the dagger. He kills her and all her dark energy passes into the man. He becomes the Dark One. Blue is born as a premature asshole," Emma recites. She squints up at Regina again. "Can we please talk about the thing where you still think you're evil?"

"No," Regina says.

"Because–"

"No," Regina repeats, a new edge of hysteria to her voice. "Because someone just took advantage of my own self-loathing to try to force me to give up– to commit suicide," she corrects herself. "Blue took away my free will. And our son is still out there and I don't give a damn about what I'm feeling about it right now as long as Henry is under Blue's influence." Her shoulders are shaking and a vial across the room shatters. "Dammit!"

"Regina," Emma whispers. Anger has been something to hold onto. Desperation is only quickening Emma's heartbeat, too. "Come here."

Regina wrings her hands. "I have to–"

"Come here," she says again, and she doesn't know what she can do to soothe Regina but she kisses her when she approaches, slow and gentle until Regina's heartbeat isn't quite so frenetic and they're both a little calmer.

Emma can feel the same terror as Regina in her veins. They're helpless right now, trapped in a town completely under someone else's control and without any kind of plan beyond keep Henry safe. There's no way out of town without being turned into a flying monkey. They have no allies anymore, and Blue is controlling everyone.

There's nothing they can do, and it takes a moment of the two of them with foreheads pressed together and hands lazy against each other's waists before they can both breathe easily again. "We'll get Henry," Emma says for both of them, finally with something productive to do.

"I'm going to read…whatever I can in this book." It's an odd mix of their spoken language– English, it's called here– and what Regina says is elvish. Emma's skimming the pages, searching for familiar words while Regina mixes the potion.

"Here!" she says, her finger landing on a line she can read. "The babe, the dagger, the wand. Can you read the rest of this?"

"Sounds like ingredients," Regina says, brow furrowing. "She has the wand. She has at least one baby. All she needs is–"

"She told Belle to go home," Emma points out. "If she's planning on finding the dagger, wouldn't it be in the Dark One's castle?" Finally, finally, this is all a little less overwhelming. They have a lead. They have something– if not something to use, something to keep from Blue. "We just have to beat her to it."

Regina shakes her head, wry and equally overwhelmed. "A fairy. We're going to declare war on the fairies. What kind of idiot thinks that that's a good idea?" She spins around, eyes flashing. "You do the…little aggressions, you know? You kidnap someone's lover, you send an assassin after someone else, you maybe cast a curse that turns Blue into a nun? It's all casual. Not war." She's pacing now, hands expressive in her disbelief, and Emma can feel laughter bubbling up. Regina frowns at her. "What?"

"I'm just…" She doesn't know how to describe it, this moment of lightness that is Regina raging over large-scale magical battle after all the dread and hopelessness that had come before. "I'm glad you're here with me," she says finally.

Regina watches her with warm, warm eyes, so much within them that Emma knows they're mirrored in her own. "I'm glad you're here with me, too," Regina says, and winning this one suddenly feels a tiny bit more possible.

Regina does manage two potions in the end, and there are no questions about who has to get the spare. Safety has to be their first concern, not firepower. There's no one who can counter a fairy maneuvering the whole town as marionettes.

So Emma matches the pace of the people around her and meanders toward the pawn shop, a vial of potion in her pocket as she casually pushes open the door. Neal and David are standing in place, neither one reacting to the visitor, and Emma marches up to David and pours the potion into his open mouth.

"I wish I could just…be your big brother," David says when they slip into the back of the shop. Neal stares straight ahead with blank eyes and doesn't follow them. "Hold my arms around you and protect you from the world."

He does wrap his arms around her, and she leans against his solid chest and says, "Yeah, okay, Shepherd Boy. I'm the one who needs protection."

He laughs, a rumble against her ears. "When we were kids, I was herding sheep and you were starting up with kings. I may have missed my big brother time slot. Still, though…"

She grins, oddly at peace in the quiet room with David's easy calm. "If I ever decide I'm cut out for that whole damsel in distress bit, I'll definitely let you know."

"Regina would kick my ass for it and save you herself."

"Probably." They haven't spent much time together since Emma had been returned to Storybrooke, and Emma's missed this between them. There's a connection, one wrought less by time together and more by what-could-have-been. Emma wishes they'd had the chance for the former, but the latter is enough right now. And maybe someday…

She presses a kiss to his stubbled cheek. "Go look after your kid, David. I got this."

They can't give the potion to Snow or Aurora, not when both women will have an easier time of it if they aren't in Blue's line of fire. David will watch over the women and the babies, hopefully nondescript enough that he won't be in danger even if Blue figures him out. Her patronage of the White family has to mean something.

They split up when Emma leaves the pawn shop, David heading to the convent and Emma tracing her steps back to the vault. Henry and Regina should be there already, and Emma speeds up, so focused on them that she doesn't notice when several passersby change direction to amble after her.

And then a few more. And then, even more. Emma twists around, finally spotting them moving toward her in her peripheral vision, and comes face-to-blank-face with several dozen townspeople. They keep walking forward, undeterred by her suspicion.

Fuck. Fuck. Blue must have realized that the book was gone and put two and two together. And somehow, she can control all these people reaching out for Emma.

Emma takes off, spotting a few fairies swooping down at her– Tinkerbell among them, nothing in her gaze– and dodging them as she turns a corner. There are more townspeople waiting for her there, shifting forward in slow steps, and she slams into them, twists past grabbing hands and shoves through limp bodies to get past the mob.

"Emma!" The cry is loud in the silence of the mob and oh-so-welcome. Henry is– above her? "Emma, grab my hand!"

She takes his hand and steps, fleet-footed, up knees and shoulders as easily as she would tree branches, swinging herself up and safely onto Beetle. Beside them, Rocinante nickers in approval and Regina says, "Onward, then."

They ride faster than the mob, people detaching themselves from their aimless wandering to trail after them, and they ride faster, Emma taking the reins from Henry and swinging them around toward the woods.

"We just need to lose them!" Henry calls into her ear. "My whole class turned all zombie on me before Mom got there. I was just standing there while they grabbed at me! Mom had to pull me away to give me the potion and then they got confused and we escaped."

"David should be fine," Emma says, chewing on her lip. "Blue won't suspect him when Mulan and Lancelot are watching over the babies." They're deeper in the woods now, Regina leading the way and no movement in sight. Emma lets out a whoop and Beetle speeds up to ride beside Rocinante. "How'd you manage to get to the stables?"

"They aren't far from the school." Regina glances around and then nods. "Whoa!" Beetle and Rocinante both obey her command, slowing to a halt so they can all slide down onto the forest floor. "A car might have been more efficient, but–" She looks grouchy about it.

"We can't run over everyone in our way, Mom," Henry says reproachfully. "Zombies are people too."

"–I was outvoted," Regina finishes sullenly. Emma stifles a laugh.

"Well. I'm glad you haven't murdered any innocents today." She sits down, leaning against the closest tree trunk. "So what now? We have to make it back to the convent and find Tamara."

"If Tamara even agrees to help us," Henry supplies. "I thought she was pretty cool before she tortured Mom and kidnapped me, but–"

"I think she will," Regina says, and they both stare at her. She shrugs, irritable. "I don't know. I'm all about the second chances these days, aren't I? I don't like her, but if Blue's been the mastermind of all of this, we might as well worry about her instead of an old grudge."

"You think Tamara's still on our side?"

"I think she's the only one we might have a chance of getting through to. The other fairies are all under Blue's influence. Everyone else is under the fairy-kindness. And Zelena is unreliable at best. Tamara might be more pragmatic." She straightens. "Emma, you stay here with Henry. I'll go talk to Tamara."

"No!" Emma and Henry say at once. "We're not splitting up again," Henry says firmly.

"I'm not letting either of you out of my sight," Emma agrees. "If we do this, we do it together." They've had precious few opportunities to ever get to be together, and Emma isn't going to squander them now, at the end of things.

They wait in silence, eyes fixed on the one woman here who can snap her fingers and poof away, leaving them in the dust.

"Okay," Regina says finally. "Together."

Emma leads the way. She might be the least familiar with the terrain of Storybrooke, but she still has the instinctive ability to map out new places almost instantly from horseback, and Regina rides behind her with Henry wrapped around her waist, watching attentively.

They ride out near where they'd first vanished into the woods, and there are still townspeople congregated there, trudging into the underbrush and tripping all over each other. Emma shouts, "Hey!" and darts forward, Beetle her steady companion, and the townspeople follow her deep into the woods.

She tracks the terrain to where the bushes are thornier, where there are tangled roots hidden under the leaves, and to where the trees are so thick that it's impossible to see anything. Henry is nearly bouncing on Rocinante's back, earning a swat of a tail when he unbalances the horse a bit too much. "Hold tight, Henry," Regina calls.

"You want me? You want me?" Emma taunts, riding in deeper. "Come and get me. Yeah, you! Over there!" She yanks a branch off a tree and tosses it at one of the dwarves. "Right this way, sir!"

Henry winces at her. "Be cool, Ma."

"Rude! Who taught you your manners? Sure as hell wasn't me." This is exhilarating, what Emma was made for. Taunting her hunters through the woods until they realize they're the hunted? She's been doing this since she'd been just about Henry's age.

And the shambling townspeople are responding, stepping deeper and deeper into the woods. They're getting mired in the underbrush, fumbling for freedom with fingers that aren't working as nimbly as they should, thanks to the fairy-kindness. Perfect. "Let's go!" Emma orders her family, and she turns, mapping a way out in moments.

And within minutes, they're free of their pursuers and emerging from the woods, right behind the convent. "See? Your Ma is kind of cool," Emma teases, riding up beside Henry.

Henry is unimpressed. "Mom could have waved her hand and we'd already be there."

"Aha, but the townspeople would be free to slow us down. Tell me I'm cool, kid." She isn't quite clear on what cool means in this world, but she's pretty sure it's something good.

"Tell her she's cool," Regina says in a stage whisper. "She'll never stop asking if you don't." Emma gives her a dark look. Regina smirks.

Henry studies her speculatively. "Ma, can I get a dog?"

"I don't see why not," Emma says. The Merry Men had kept various dogs over the years, slipped them meat and let them run free as long as they hadn't bothered the horses. If they can afford to feed a dog, Henry can–

Regina is glaring daggers at her. Huh. Maybe this world is different. All those enclosed houses. "You are cool," Henry says, beaming.

"Why don't we wait until we defeat ultimate good before we start planning for pets?" Regina cuts in, still glaring at Emma.

Emma winces. "Right, yeah. Listen to your mom. Think we can get into the building by poofing?"

"Not without Blue detecting us. This part is on you, Tarzan." Henry giggles and Emma frowns, the reference passing over her head, and nods to them, shimmying up a tree and across the roof, peering into windows until she sees them.

They're in one of the upstairs rooms now, removed from the auditorium and the nursery. Tamara is still holding the wand, staring at it with discomfort and faint curiosity. Zelena is curled up in fetal position on the bed beside her, hands pressed to her head as Tamara absentmindedly rubs her back in soothing circles.

Emma raps on the window. Tamara turns, eyes widening. Emma? she mouths, rising and hurrying to open the window. "How the hell did you get past Glinda's magic?"

"It's a long story," Emma says. "But for now, we need your help." She eyes the wand. They could take it, too, but Regina is certain that Blue could recover it in an instant. She will always have more power over it than they will. No, they're better off going after the dagger.

Tamara glances back at Zelena on the bed, and then past Emma to where Henry and Regina are waiting on the ground. "What do you need?"

Emma says, "A ride home."