The Enchanted Forest, 10:00pm
"We're getting close." Mulan announced as they walked through the forest. "Aurora, you've gotta keep up."
"Sorry, but I'm not exactly dressed for the woods!" she retorted, dragging along her dress. "It's cold out here!"
"Then maybe you should've listened to me and stayed back."
"Wait a minute." Snow raised her hand. "Shush!"
The bushes rustled to the left; Snow raised her bow and Mulan drew her sword. Another ogre? Some other creature?
No. Patton came forward, towing the cargo-laden horse she had stolen earlier by a rope.
"Did you miss me?" she asked, merging onto the path.
"God," Emma sighed in relief, "don't freaking do that!"
"We're here!" Mulan shouted.
"Is that it?" Emma asked.
"Yeah," Snow took a nostalgic breath, "that's our home."
"Holy…" Patton muttered. "You guys live there?"
"Yeah, we used to." Snow sighed, starting down the path.
The Nursery, Snow's Palace, 11:00pm
The big, heavy doors clanked open as the five walked into the room. It was a nursery, albeit an extremely old, ruined one. Furniture and toys were scattered about; wreckage covered the floor.
"I recognize this from Henry's book!" Emma exclaimed, walking in.
"We'll stand watch at the gate." Mulan announced, walking off with Aurora in tow.
"I'm just gonna, y'know, go with them." Patton replied, following after them, leaving Snow and Emma all alone.
"I never thought I'd see this place again." Snow sighed, picking up a teddy bear and trying to clean it off. "This room. It was your nursery."
"I lived here?" Emma asked.
"You never even got to spend a night." She sighed, looking around in something between anguish and nostalgia. "This is the life I wanted you to have. I was going to teach you how to walk in here, how to talk, how to dress for your first ball. You never got to do any of it. We never got to be a family."
"We have a family," Emma retorted, "in Storybrooke. And right now, they need us to get back there. So, how do we get this to work." She gestured towards the tree trunk that was supposed to be the portal.
Palace Gates, The Enchanted Forest, 11:05pm
"So, where are you from?" Mulan asked, striking up conversation.
"Me?" Patton replied. "Bar Harbor, born and raised."
"Where is that?"
Patton smiled. "Sorry, forgot we're literally from different worlds. It's in a country called the United States. Small city, sort of like that village you guys were camped out at."
"What did you do, in your world?"
"I was a soldier. National Guard. In fact, technically I still am, I'm just here cause I fell into that portal."
"I am also a soldier; I was Prince Philip's guard. Now I look after Aurora."
"I didn't ask for you to." Aurora snapped back.
Mulan ignored her. "Did you fight?"
"Well, yeah."
"That egg you used to kill the ogre; where did you get it?"
"Egg?" Patton laughed, pulling one out of her pocket. "No, no. This here is an M67 fragmentation grenade. Finest grenade around. It's made in factories; birds don't lay them."
"You make those?"
"Oh, that's nothing. We make tanks, jets, helicopters."
"Wait, what are those things?" This soldier was talking so fast, Mulan couldn't keep up.
Patton had seen Army of Darkness once when she was sixteen, and was dying to shout "boomstick," but refrained. "Well, a tank is, hmm, it's like a really big chariot, with treads instead of wheels; and it's basically invincible. Can charge through buildings, blow up things miles away. Hmm, you ever seen an elephant?"
"Yes!" Mulan replied, happy at a reference she understood. "In the southern kingdoms they are used in war."
"It's like that, only with a big cannon on it."
"And what are 'aircraft?'"
"Oh, they're flying machines, with guns and missiles on them."
"Flying machine? Ha!" Mulan replied, laughing at the notion.
"No, seriously. I have one right here!" She fished out the InstantEye drone from her backpack and launched it skyward, to the almost childlike awe of the two women.
"Wow!" Aurora exclaimed as Patton hovered it just ahead of her eyelevel. She reached out with her finger and touched it.
"No, no!" Patton shouted as Aurora's curious finger went towards the blades. "Don't touch that part! It's spinning really fast; it'll cut your finger."
"Like a knife?" Mulan asked.
"Sort of, only it provides enough lift to make this thing fly like a bird."
"What land are you from?"
"Didn't we go over this? The United States."
"Where is the United States?"
"Uh, how do I word this; hmm, not here?"
"Like, across the sea?" Aurora inquired.
"Not quite; think farther. Like, on another planet?"
"You're crazy." Mulan laughed.
"Hold on a second." Patton hushed, looking down at the video feed. "There's someone in there with them."
"Who?"
In an instant, she zoomed in enough to make out the figure. "It's that knight, the one on the island."
"Lancelot?"
"Is he tall and African American?"
"Afri-what?" Aurora demanded.
Patton sighed. "Black. Tall and black?"
"Yes."
"Well, he's in there, and we missed him entirely."
"Come on!" Mulan shouted, drawing her sword and racing back inside, followed by Aurora. Patton took a moment to switch the safety off on her rifle, and then charged in after them.
The Nursery, Snow White's Palace, 11:30pm
"That is not Lancelot!" Mulan shouted, coming in to find an imposing woman in a glittery dress standing at swordpoint courtesy of Snow.
"Who the hell is that?" Patton demanded.
"Cora." Emma scoffed.
"Where's Lancelot?" Snow demanded.
"He's dead. I killed him a long time ago."
"And you've been posing as him ever since?"
"Well they'd never listen to me. And besides, every kingdom needs a hero, don't you think?"
Snow went to attack her, but this Cora shot a purple-tinged cloud of… something at Snow, pinning her to the wall. Emma ran for her, but Cora tossed her aside, again, by an invisible force Patton refused to admit was magic.
Well, it even if it turned out it was magic, she was pretty sure it wasn't a match for 5.56 NATO, and opened up on Cora. Five round burst, shot off in a moment. The bullets flew towards Cora, faster than the sound barrier and then some. Well, Cora shoved her hand back at Patton's direction, and those bullets just pinged off of some invisible shield, leaving a purple ripple as they hit. Seemingly for good measure, Cora then swept Patton, Mulan and Aurora all off their feet and to the floor.
"Thank you, Snow." Cora taunted as Snow was slowly strangled by the magical force pinning her to the wall. "I've been looking for a way over for so long."
Emma rushed to her feet, but with another simple hand gesture, Cora animated a carpet and tripped her on it.
"I never thought the person to help me find it would be you!"
"Why are you doing this?" Snow choked out.
"Oh, I want to see my daughter. It's been so long. And you know, I would love to meet my grandson Henry."
"No you won't!" Emma shouted, setting the wardrobe on fire.
"NO!" Cora raged, lifting up the fire and hurling it at Emma. Well, Mulan rose to her feet just in time to parry it with her sword.
"We're not done!" Cora insisted, smiling before disappearing in a puff of purple haze.
"You okay?" Emma asked, walking up to her mother.
"Yeah."
"So, where is she?"
"Gone."
"So's our ride home." The wardrobe was ablaze.
"What the hell?" Patton demanded. "She's going to Earth? To America?"
"She sure sounded like she wanted to." Emma replied, still looking at the inferno.
"Don't worry!" Snow insisted. "We'll stop her. And even if she did get to Earth, she probably wouldn't want to try and hurt anyone that isn't already from her, okay?"
"No! Not 'okay'! My job is to protect Americans, Snow; you can be damned sure I'm gonna worry." Patton fumed, storming out.
"She's right." Mulan added. "I might not have allegiances to this 'America', but I do have a duty to defend and protect what's left of the kingdom, and as long as Cora is out there, our people are in danger."
"Who's gonna lead us? You?" Aurora asked.
"No. Her." She looked back at Snow.
"I'm honored, but Emma and I still have to find a way back to Storybrooke."
"We'll help you. We'll find a way, won't we?"
"Yes." Aurora agreed. "Perhaps it'll help me channel my anger." Those two walked out, leaving Emma and Snow to talk for a few minutes. The lesson of that conversation was clear: Emma had forgiven her mother.
The Nursery, Snow's Palace, 11:45pm
Cora reappeared in the ruins of the nursery just moments after Snow and Emma left the premises, alone to think and plan her next move. Well, she obviously wanted to get to the other world, to "visit" her daughter, and her grandson, and all the wonderful people Regina had taken from the forest.
And yet, following the small team for a while, just observing and listening, she became intensely interested in the tales of the other blonde woman, the one wearing the green vest with the weird crossbow. It was no match for her immense magic, obviously, but the stories she had told Mulan and Aurora as they walked on were very, very interesting.
This soldier, Paxton? Patton? Well, she told intriguing stories of her homeland, a mighty empire in this other land, the "United States." It was rich, filthy rich, with a mighty army and incredible technology. Nothing like magic, but not as far behind as she would have liked in some aspects. Tales of invincible chariots and metal birds were especially interesting. Why, this country would probably be a wonderful place to rule, especially if the soldier's stories concerning its cities of crystal and steel were to be believed.
She was quite a talker, too; Cora couldn't help but wonder if she would have talked so much had she known she was being watched. She threw around appalling concepts like "liberty" and "freedom" and "justice" and "equality." What rubbish! Well, she would take that out of those people, cleanse them of those poisonous ideas.
None of that would happen, though, if she couldn't get a portal, which is why she scooped up some ash from the wardrobe, and grinned demonically as it glowed with leftover magic.
The Cemetery, Storybrooke, Maine, 8:00am
"So, this is it?" Hickory asked, following the still-cuffed Jefferson to a small mausoleum.
"Yup." Jefferson replied. "This is Henry Mills' crypt. Let's go in."
They opened the old oaken doors, and saw what one would expect to find in such a crypt: a big stone coffin, with white flowers spread over top of it. A plaque on it read 'Henry Mills, Beloved Father.'
"Doesn't seem to special, does it?" Jefferson inquired sarcastically.
"You know," Hickory replied, walking slowly around the coffin, inspecting it, "in Iraq, we had to deal with a lot of insurgent hidey-holes in houses and shops." He bent down on the right side of the coffin and put his index finger on the ground, finding a chalky substance on it beside smear lines.
"What are you doing?" Jefferson asked as Hickory began shoving the coffin to the right. Under it turned out to be a big staircase leading down.
"First thing we learned: always check for hidden passages." He looked down, gesturing Jefferson forward. "Ladies first."
"Whoa." Jefferson muttered, taking it all in. On the wall opposite the staircase there was a big cabinet resembling a golden safe-deposit, and an odd sound was coming from it. Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. Almost like the rhythmic throb of a heartbeat. "Holy God."
"Eggheads are gonna have a field day down here." Hickory muttered, looking to his left to see another room. Dozens of little alcoves were carved into the wall, each one housing an object.
"What are those?"
"You're asking the wrong guy."
"Jeesh, I knew she had this place but I always thought more 'root cellar' than 'NORAD-Giza complex.'"
"I'm gonna call up Augusta, you stay put."
"Why Augusta?"
"So they can send me somebody that understands this shit." He pulled out his walkie-talkie, going towards the stairs for better reception. "Command, this is Duke, requesting research crew ASAP."
"Duke, please repeat."
"I say again, this is Duke, requesting a research crew ASAP."
"Copy that. Science team inbound ETA one-two-zero minutes."
"Roger that, over and out." He turned back towards Jefferson.
"So what now?"
"They're gonna take everything in this place apart and then put it back together again."