50ft Over Main Street, Storybrooke, Maine, 8:30pm
"Duke, this is Valkyrie One; we are tailing unidentified attacker from earlier. Requesting permission to engage?"
"Valkyrie One, you put that son of a bitch in the dirt! Engage!"
"Roger that!" Roy Whitewall slammed the stick forward, in hot pursuit of the monster that had attacked them earlier. "Emberly," he ordered his gunner, "blast that sucker to hell."
"Hot guns!" Emberly Pyre shouted, unleashing sweet 30mm payback from the M230 chain gun mounted under their aircraft.
They were hitting the thing, that's for certain; it staggered in pain from the rounds of white-hot lead impacting it, but it didn't show any visible damage. It wasn't dying anytime soon. The strafing run continued, Emberly determined to put this thing down. It had killed soldiers; soldiers she was supposed to protect. That's why she was there, for close air support. She had failed once, and didn't intend to again.
"Switch Hydras," Emberly went on, "Locked onto bogey; rockets out!" She launched off two Hydra 70 rockets at the creature they were tailing. They were unguided, yes, but the distance was practically point blank, so their disadvantage was largely diminished.
The creature writhed in utter agony as the M156 white phosphorous warheads detonated on its back, engulfing it in flame. The cloak dragging from its almost skeletal body ignited, and the flying thing tumbled down to Earth, wailing as the Apache streaked overhead.
"Duke, this is Valkyrie One; Splash One; repeat, Splash One!"
Main Street, Storybrooke, Maine, 8:34pm
"Wow." That was the only word Emma managed to summon from the dogfight she had just witnessed. The Apache arced around the fallen creature, aiming its spotlight onto the corpse.
"Ho-lee shit." Charming muttered as they ran towards it.
It looked dead; it certainly wasn't moving. Yet, to the surprise and terror of everyone, the beast burst back up, rearing up over them, shrieking before flying off towards the sheriff's office, staying low in the streets as to avoid another confrontation with its hovering adversary above.
"Where's it going?" Patton asked, griping her Beretta with both hands.
"The sheriff's office." Emma replied. "Oh my God."
"What?"
"It's gonna kill Regina."
"So?" Patton didn't care. "She's evil. You literally included that in her job description. The EVIL Queen. Why would you wanna save her?"
"Because nobody deserves to die like that." Emma replied, rushing past her.
Sheriff's Office, Storybrooke, Maine, 8:40pm
"Hello?" Regina asked. She heard an odd wailing sound coming towards her. Descending upon her like the harbinger of death it was, a creature she recognized as a Wraith swatted the heavy cell door off of its hinges.
The Wraith's decaying, hideous hand reached towards her, and Regina stood in fear as it started to suck the life out of her. Her whole body writhed in immense pain as what little soul she had left was sucked out of her by this red-eyed monster.
"Hey!" Charming shouted, throwing a desk chair at the Wraith. This had little effect; the beast merely knocked it aside as Emma and Snow dove for cover. Charming tried to jab at it with his clenched fist, but again the Wraith deflected him. He was thrown clear across the room as the beast growled. The creature resumed sucking Regina's life force from her as if nothing had happened.
By this point, Snow and Emma were scrounging around the office for anything they could use to fight back, but Patton wasn't having any of it. She took careful aim with her Beretta, sending off five rounds at the beast. Easily she could have switched to her M16, but she didn't want to waste its ammunition; plus the Beretta was much more easily reached.
"Eat lead!" she screamed as she fired off the whole clip. The Wraith was visibly pained by this, breaking off from Regina once more and looking at the two-dozen half-inch holes Patton had given it. It turned to attack her while she reloaded, but by that point Snow was ready to attack.
"Hey! Over here!" she shouted, raising a can of hairspray and a lighter. She unleashed a jet of fire at the Wraith, sending it reeling back in agony. Another burst of flame sent it away out the window. The loud rattling sound of machine guns and the thumping of rotor blades, followed by more wailing indicated that the Wraith had forgotten the Apache was still on alert nearby.
Regina was on the floor, coughing and panting from the experience, trying to recover as Emma ran up to her. "What the hell was that thing?"
"A Wraith." Regina panted out as Emma helped her to her feet. "A soul-sucker."
"Did we…?"
"Kill it? No. It's regenerating." They were taken aback. "It'll be back. It doesn't stop until it devours its prey. Me."
"So how do we kill it?" Emma demanded.
"There's no way. You can't kill something that's already dead."
"That could be a problem." Patton muttered.
"It's not our problem." Charming replied, thinking. "It's Regina's."
"What?" Regina seemed suddenly alarmed.
"You're just gonna let her die?" Emma demanded.
"Why not? Then it goes away; then we're safe."
"That's quite the example you're daughter there." Regina retorted viciously.
"No. You don't get to judge us!" Charming fumed, towering over her.
"Let me ask you something; where do you think that thing came from? Gold."
Emma looked at her father wide-eyed. "I made a promise to Henry. She's not dying."
"If it can't be killed," Snow contemplated, "what do you suggest?"
The reply was abrupt. "Send it somewhere it can't hurt anyone. Come on, I have an idea."
They walked out of the police station, Regina leading. Patton stayed behind, walking beside Emma.
"You realize this is a really, really, really bad idea, right?"
"How so?" Emma asked back.
"You know what happened to Bill Clinton, right? He had three chances to take out bin Laden, years before 9/11. He turned down all of them. I'm not here to judge the morality behind that, but I see that here. Your Regina is Clinton's Osama, and it's the same thing. You're letting her go, and it's gonna come back and blow up in your faces; maybe mine too now!"
"I made a promise."
"To who? A nine year old? He won't even remember tomorrow! Just let me put a bullet in her head from here and this can all go away!"
Emma considered this, sighing. Regina had tried to kill her parents, her, and probably wouldn't have second thoughts on killing Henry if it benefited her. "Fine. Just, let her take that Wraith away first, alright? You kill her in cold blood if you want; but that Wraith's still dangerous."
Regina's Mansion, Storybrooke, Maine, 9:00pm
It was… a basket. Regina's grand plan for getting rid of the Grim Reaper was a leather basket laid on her dining room table.
The evil queen removed the lid from the bin, but looked over at Emma for a second. "Did Henry really ask you to protect me?"
"Yes." Emma replied abruptly. Regina looked like she was about to say something, but just smiled, reaching into the basket and removing the device that was going to save them all.
Now, being a soldier, Patton was expecting something like a landmine, or maybe some Ghostbusters style vacuum. Given the situation, she wouldn't have been really surprised by anything.
Except what was actually in the basket. A top hat. Emma looked at it in awe, but Patton found it simply stupid.
"That's bullshit." She blurted out without even thinking. Regina shot her a poisonous look.
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" the queen demanded.
"I'm the only person standing between you and a couple hundred artillery shells." Patton shot back coldly. Regina glared at her.
Snow and Charming came in with three brooms.
"Torches, for when it comes back." Charming announced, handing them out. "I know it's old fashioned, but so am I."
"So," Snow asked, gesturing to the top hat. "How does it work?"
Town Hall, Storybrooke, Maine, 9:15pm
"It'll open a portal to our world." Regina informed, placing the hat on the ground.
"Your world." Patton muttered again, and Regina once again shot her a look that would kill her if it could.
"Look miss Marines, if you have such a problem with me why are you here?"
"National Guard, and the reason I'm here is because we have a problem with assholes that throw fire at innocent people."
Once again turned back, Regina just continued explaining. "All we have to do is send the Wraith in there."
"Oh yeah. Just that." Charming replied sarcastically.
"I thought our land was gone." Snow asked.
"It is." Regina responded. "By sending it to a place which no longer exists, then that's banishing it to oblivion."
The doors rattled and lights flickered as the Wraith inevitably came back. Charming, Snow and Emma all had their lit broomsticks ready to fight, but they wouldn't last long. Patton changed the clip in her Beretta, prepared for the worst.
"Regina…" Emma warned.
"I'm trying." Regina replied, continuing to work. The Wraith wailed again, bursting open the doors and blowing out their torches with the wind. Then, it came.
Charming rushed at it, torch in hand, swatting at it whilst evading the Wraith's clawing hands. Snow covered the railing in vodka, which Charming immediately lit up. Patton just shot at the thing, trying to stall it as long as possible.
"It's not working!" Regina stammered as she tried to do God knows what to the hat.
"Now would be the time!" Charming shouted, stabbing at the beast.
Emma grabbed Regina's shoulder, and the hat started spinning wildly, a purplish vortex emerging from it.
"Holy shit." Patton muttered as the portal opened up. That was all it took as the Wraith swatted her and Charming away in one fell swoop, making a beeline for Regina. In the brief fight, Charming was swung into the left wall, while Patton got swatted right down the portal, screaming as she fell.
Emma shoved the queen out of the way of the Wraith, which was immediately sucked down into the vortex. Its last act was to grab onto Emma's ankle and drag her down with it.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Snow shouted as her daughter was sucked down the hole. "I'm not losing her again!"
She dove in right after Emma, at which Charming shouted "Neither am I!" before he too dove in. Unexpectedly, the portal closed up as he was about to dive in, and he almost comically bellyflopped onto the floor.
He rose to his feet, feeling at the floor; hoping, praying there was still a chance he would see them again. The prince grabbed the hat and sniffled a bit.
"Where are they?" he demanded fiercely.
"I have no idea." Regina replied, looking him in the eye.
"Are they dead?"
"The curse; it destroyed all the lands."
"ARE THEY DEAD?" the prince bellowed.
"I don't know!"
"I should have killed you myself."
"Well then what's stopping you?" Regina retorted viciously, shoving him back against the wall. Rather suddenly, a bunch of vines burst out of the wall, holding Charming hostage.
"You think you're some heroic prince?" Regina monologue as the vines strangled Charming. "Please. You're nothing but the son of a shepherd."
"Hey!" a burly voice shouted, drawing Regina's attention. The evil queen turned towards her, finding herself at the business end of an M4A1 carbine. It was the Sergeant Major. "Let him go."
"You won't." Regina taunted, staring Hickory down. "No, you're not going to shoot me. You're gonna put that gun down and call in your buddies to do the dirty work for you. I'm good at reading people, old man."
"Don't quit your day job." Hickory fumed.
"Mom?" a little voice asked. It was the kid from earlier; Henry. He was standing in front of the crazy chick claiming to be little red riding hood.
Charming still pinned to the wall by the overgrowth, Regina asked unnervingly sweetly "Henry, what are you doing here?"
"What are you doing?" he demanded, tearing up.
"It's okay." She walked towards him to hug him. "You're safe now."
Charming fell from the wall as the vines retreated, panting on the ground. Red ran up to him to help him up while Hickory kept her crosshairs firmly on Regina.
"Where's my mom? Where's…?"
"They're gone." Regina interrupted. "They fell through a portal; they're…" She sighed. "Henry, I am sorry."
"No you're not." Henry retorted, seeing through her lies. "You're the evil queen. I don't want to see you again." He was crying now.
"Don't say that." Regina replied softly. "I love you."
"Then prove it! Get Emma and Mary Margaret back! And until then, leave me, leave everyone alone."
"Where will you go?"
"With me." Charming replied, still breathing heavily as he recovered. He walked over to Henry and walked out with his hand on the boy's shoulder. Red followed. Hickory kept his carbine trained on the queen as she too left the room.
Aurora's Palace, the Enchanted Forest, 9:10pm
"We should leave this place," Mulan began, walking towards Aurora as she cried over her fallen husband, "it's not safe here."
"But the Wraith is gone." Aurora protested, standing up.
"There's more. You need to know everything." She sighed. "Much has changed in our lands since you've been asleep."
"It was less than a year!"
"In a manner of speaking." Mulan contemplated. "You see, as you slept, and Philip and I searched for you, something worse happened."
"What?"
"Are you familiar with Regina, the queen?"
"Yes."
"She cast a curse on this land, a terrible, terrible curse. It ripped everyone away to another world."
"But we're still here."
"This corner of the land was untouched," Mulan noted, adding "no one knows why. But something saved us; and for twenty-eight years we were frozen. And then, time started again. The terrible curse's power was weakened. Philip and I were able to resume our search; we found you. But the land is ravaged with dangers more fearsome than you can imagine." She thought for a moment. "For those of us who remain, we found a safe haven. We must go there now."
A wind howled through, and the two women rushed to where a big pile of debris had suddenly appeared.
"Something's in there." Mulan said, drawing her sword.
"What did it bring?" Mulan didn't answer Aurora's question as she turned over the rubble. "What is it? What do you see?"
"Mulan, what is that?"
"That, that is what brought the Wraith here. That is what killed our prince." Looking down, there were three unconscious women laying in the rubble, slowly waking up.