Sheriff's Office, Storybrooke, Maine, 2:00pm
"Alright, Patton," Emma began, sitting down at her desk, "you're gonna need a bit of help here."
"I figured." The soldier replied.
"So, what're you planning?"
"Right now, watch and observe is my only mission unless noted otherwise."
"So, Ruby-er, Red," Apparently Emma Swann was also getting used to the idea, "told me that you told her you were Rapunzel, right?"
"Hey! I thought she was crazy! In fact, I still do!"
"Maybe you oughtta know about town before you go play secret agent, alright? Just sit tight, and I'll tell you the story." The cop proceeded to do so, at which Patton listened intently.
"So, you're all from frikkin Narnia?"
Emma smiled a bit, appreciating the humor. "Get it right, Ms. Acadia; we're from the Enchanted Forest."
"Jesus; this, this is a lot to take in."
"I had a bit of trouble too; still do. You know who I was?"
"Who?"
"Snow White's daughter. Right before the Curse went on, my parents sent me to this world. I was only a baby, and I spent twenty-eight years alone, with nobody to guide me. At least you're finding out from this perspective."
Patton sighed. "You know this is going up the chain of command, right? It's already going to Augusta; probably further if this Regina becomes more of a threat."
"Really?" Emma seemed pretty nervous.
"Yeah. Say, what are the chances of Regina becoming more of a threat? You've known her a lot longer than I have, and I say 'psychotically dangerous.'"
"Think higher." Emma responded grimly. "She's killed at least three people here; countless more in the Enchanted Forest when she was the queen."
"Christ. So, pretty high then?"
"Yeah, and when she gets her magic back, it'll be even worse. Like, level the town to stop her worse."
"Trivially easy for us." Patton quipped, thinking to the Bradley parked outside. Reinforcements were on their way; combined they'd be able to, if necessary, obliterate the whole town from some comfy hill a few dozen miles away. Not to mention the naval support they could call in. USS Thunder Child was right offshore; the sheer firepower she could dish out would be overkill for the place.
"Well, let's try and avoid that. You ever heard of appeal to force?"
"We're built on the principle, Sheriff."
"Now seems like a good time to use it."
Blaine House, Augusta, Maine, 2:15pm
"Of course you realize, ma'am, that this is batshit crazy."Governor LePage noted, looking over the report of the events while chomping on a Cuban cigar.
"Sir," Colonel Lisa Sanders replied, "I know that. But this is a firsthand account from one of the Guardsman I sent up to check it out. Staff Sergeant Patton Acadia. It's real, now how do we handle it?"
"Frankly, I'm not sure." The governor rose from his chair, walking to the window to see the bustling capital below.
"Sir, I sent more units of the 240th Regiment up to reinforce the scout unit we sent up earlier; they should be arriving any minute."
The door burst open, and a young child came running in energetically, sprinting to her father's lap, smiling the whole way. "Daddy! Daddy! Can you come downstairs with me?"
"Oh, sweetie," LePage began to reply, "I'm at a meeting right now."
"But Sleeping Beauty's on!"
LePage sighed, smothering his cigar in an ashtray. "Alright. I'll be down in a few minutes, okay sweetie? I'll protect you from that evil queen, okay?" He tickled her stomach, and she ran back out giggling with glee.
"Colonel, what are the chances of this… Regina, hurting innocent people; like my daughter?" LePage asked, very cautiously.
"The Staff Sergeant asked a local, and she said it was very high."
LePage sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that. I'm quarantining Storybrooke."
Regina's Mansion, Storybrooke, Maine, 4:25pm
"Come outside with your hands in the air!" Hickory bellowed into a bullhorn.
Regina came out with a start, wearing the same uncanny smirk Patton had been terrified of earlier.
"Well, well, well." She announced, putting her hands on her hips.
"Put your hands in the air or we'll fire!" Hickory shouted. Appeal to force was an understatement for the situation; they were packing heat in the Bradley, two Humvees and the Apache, all trained on the woman. Patton would have considered it excessive if she hadn't seen firsthand what this lady could do.
"You want me to put my hands up?" Regina demanded in a poisonously smooth voice. "Fine."
At that, she started to raise her arms, but switched to a thrusting motion aimed at the Bradley. Patton and Emma both shut their eyes, waiting for the worst. Hickory, like a brick wall, didn't budge.
Nothing happened.
"What?" Regina muttered, looking at her hands. No magic? She had just used it, though!
"So, are you gonna stop with the hand tricks?" Hickory quipped as he marched forward, flexicuffs in hand. "You have the right to remain silent; anything you say or do can and will be used in a court of law…" He finished the warning before shoving the mayor in the backseat of a Humvee.
"Is that Humvee really gonna hold her?" Emma asked.
"Mine took two RPGS, five hundred machine gun rounds, an IED and lost the back left wheel before going down during my tour in Afghanistan. It'll hold her."
"It better."
"So, how did you get here? I mean, you said this town didn't exist for a while after you came… from there." Patton was, despite everything, still a bit disbelieving of the whole thing.
"I was a bail bondsman in Boston for a while. On my birthday last year, I got a kid coming over; said he was my son."
"You have a son? Who is he?"
"Sadly, the kid you saw with Regina at the Town Hall meeting the other day. He's, uh, he's her son too."
"What?"
"I gave birth to him in prison. They wouldn't let me keep him, so I had to give him up for adoption. She took him."
"Christ, this sounds like the plot from some TV show."
Emma laughed. "You could say that."
They pulled over at the police station, and Regina was brought out, hands flexicuffed behind her back.
"Enjoy your stay." Hickory told her, deadpan, as he locked the jail cell behind her.
"So, now that she's neutralized where should we go next?" Patton asked.
"Keep talking up your friend the sheriff; she knows something, I can feel it."
"Emma! Wait up a second!" Patton called out, chasing her down to her yellow Volkswagon. "Where you headed?"
"Someplace you shouldn't."
Patton smiled. "Sheriff, after Fallujah, I ain't afraid of nothing. I'm coming."
"Your funeral."
Mr. Gold's Shop, Storybrooke, Maine, 8:00pm
They had driven across town to what appeared to be a thrift shop. Seemingly waiting for them, Snow and Charming stood on the sidewalk. Charming whispered something to his wife, but neither could make it out as they walked towards them.
"You guys ready?" Emma asked, walking up as her Guardsman wraparound climbed out the passenger side.
"We need to talk." Snow replied abruptly. Emma didn't seem too keen on this
"I… but… I don't… I just… I don't wanna talk."
"But I do." Snow insisted. "Gold can wait; I can't. You're my daughter, and," she smiled broadly, "I wanna talk to you. I know that we have talked, but we didn't know that we were talking. And we talked about things we probably shouldn't even have talked about; one night stands and the like."
Charming shot her a surprised look, and Patton couldn't help but smile as she stayed back behind the VW, observing.
"One night stands?" he asked.
"Whale."
"WHALE?"
"Hey, we were cursed! And that's not here or there. The point is; we didn't know that we were mother and daughter, and now we do. And, so, please, let's talk."
Emma sighed. "Okay, what do you wanna talk about?"
"We're together, finally, and I can't help but think you're not happy about it."
"Oh, no, I am. But, see," she sighed again, trying to form what she wanted to say, "Here's the thing: no matter what the circumstances, for twenty-eight years I only knew one thing; that my parents sent me away."
"We did that," Snow replied, smiling again, "to give you your best chance."
"You did it for everyone. Because that's who you are; leaders, heroes, princes and princesses, and that's great, and amazing, and wonderful, but it doesn't change the fact that for my entire life, I've been alone."
Snow thought on this a moment. "But if we hadn't sent you away, you would've been cursed too."
"But we would've been together." She thought a second. "Which curse is worse?"
Snow looked heartbroken as Emma continued. :Come on, come on, let's just go find Gold."
"Ready?" Patton asked, coming up to the door. Unresponsive, Emma slammed the door open with ferocity.
The Guardsman was ready for a fight. After seeing what Regina did, and the way Emma seemed to be preparing for this "Gold" character, her adrenaline was pumping. She went in, hand on her gun, ready to kill the crap out of something dangerous and gazed upon her foe… an old man pouring a cup of tea.
"Really?" she whispered, but Charming shushed her.
"What can I do for you?" Gold asked, putting the lid back on the tea.
"What you can do is tell us what you did." Emma demanded in a cold voice.
Gold sighed. "I'm sorry, you're gonna have to be more specific."
"You know damn well what we're talking about." Charming replied in a very impatient, assertive tone.
"You double crossed Emma, you took your, uh, potion from her." Snow added.
"And did who knows what to this town."
"Worst of all, you risked Henry's life." Emma finished, steely-voiced,
"Well, that is quite a litany of grievances, isn't it?"
"Maybe I don't need answers; maybe I just need to punch you in the face."
Gold laughed. "Really deary?" He moved from behind the counter. "Allow me to answer your questions with some of my own. Did your dear boy Henry survive?"
"Yeah." Emma replied in almost a whisper.
"Is the curse broken?"
Emma didn't respond, she just nodded slightly before looking down.
"And let's see, miss Swan, how long have you been searching for your parents? Looks like you're reunited. Seems like rather a punch in the face. I deserve a thank-you."
"Twist my words all you want." Emma replied. "What was the purple haze you brought?"
"Y'know, magic." His hand flourished up in exclamation.
"Why?"
"Not telling." He looked off towards Patton. "Who's your little friend?"
"Rapunzel."
"Ha!" Gold smiled. "You should know me, Emma. I've met Rapunzel; that is not Rapunzel. She's much too pretty."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Patton muttered as a huge rumbling sound came like an earthquake. Car alarms sounded as the shop rocked.
"What the hell was that?" Emma demanded, leaning on the counter for support. Charming and Snow walked over to the door to hear a roaring sound. Whatever caused that was alive; and it sounded rather like the thing Patton heard over the radio a few hours ago. Electric transformers spewed sparks all over as papers blew through the abandoned streets.
"That," Mr. Gold began, "is my gift to you. That is gonna take care of Regina." Another transformer short-circuited, very close now. There was a loud wailing sound, and Snow and Charming turned towards Gold.
"Emma, come on." Snow ushered.
"We need to go take care of this." Charming added. Gold and Emma stared each other down for another long second.
"We're not done." Emma threatened.
"Oh I know," Gold replied, equally cold, "you still owe me a favor."
The four walked outside, Patton looking at Gold one last time before following her partners outside. Just then, what Patton would later congratulate Iron Hickory for being dead-on with the description of "dementor" wailed overhead at close to a hundred miles an hour. In hot pursuit was an AH-64D Block III Apache twin-engine attack helicopter.