"You really need to calm down, Emma. You're angry."
"Fuck yeah, I'm angry," the Savior growled back at her mother, who struggled to keep up with her. "I'm really angry. Did you see what happened to them? That wasn't right. Something's going on, and Gold knows it." She shook her head. "I should've known better than to trust him. Should've known he would do something to get back at Regina. I swear, if something happens to her because of him..." Her sentence trailed off as her fists clenched and jaw tightened. There was a rage boiling inside of her as well as indescribable terror. She couldn't lose Regina. No matter what the mayor thought of her, Emma knew that she couldn't live without her. It didn't matter if they were just friends or even just Henry's mothers. She needed Regina in her life in some capacity. The pain of not being able to have her in the way she really wanted was far less than the pain of not having her at all.
"I understand that you're upset," Mary-Margaret said, trying to reason with her daughter. There was something in Emma's eyes. Something almost... unhinged. It scared the schoolteacher. "But you don't want to do something you're going to regret."
"I'm not," Emma said, eyes tightening when the pawn shop came into sight. "I'm not going to regret this at all."
"Emma." Mary-Margaret placed a hand on her daughter's arm, stopping her. Emma turned her gaze on her and nearly singed the pixie-haired woman with its intensity. "We need to talk about all of this. About your feelings for... for Regina." It seemed to actually physically pain Mary-Margaret to say her name.
"Yeah, I know we do," Emma returned, jerking her arm out of her mother's grasp. "And we will-as soon as we get this figured out. Didn't you see what I did? Didn't you see how hurt they were? And it's happening to the other Regina, too. Something's not right, and I've got to fix it. Whatever it takes." She squared her jaw. "So, yes, Mom, we will talk all about my fucked-up feelings and cry and hug it out later. For now, though, there are more important things to deal with. You're either going to help me, or you're going to leave me the fuck alone. Make your choice."
Mary-Margaret sighed. She knew her daughter, and she knew that there was no talking to Emma when she got like that. Nothing she said would make any difference, and she would rather not end up on the blonde's shit-list, especially when she was that angry. So, she nodded. "Lead the way, Emma. We're going to figure this out."
Emma nodded, shoulders relaxing slightly. "Okay." She turned and continued her march for the pawn shop. "Thank you."
"Let's just see if Gold knows anything," Mary-Margaret said.
Oh, he did. Emma knew he did. She'd had a feeling that little fucker was holding something back when she and Regina first spoke to him what felt like eons ago. She'd seen it in those shifty little eyes. She'd told him what would happen if Regina was placed in any kind of danger, and she was nothing if not a woman of her word.
The bell didn't just ring when Emma threw the shop's door open-it flew off its mount on the wall and bounced into a cluttered corner. Gold and Belle both looked up from each other at the intrusion, and the older man frowned.
"Really, why do I even bother putting the closed sign up?" He grumbled. "I knew you were somewhat dim, Savior, but I was under the impression that you could read."
"Shut-up," Emma snapped and, with a wave of her hand, sent his cane skittering across the store. He fell to the floor, barely keeping his face from hitting the hardwood. A familiar warmth rolled in Emma's chest, spreading throughout her entire body. Magic. She hadn't used it in so long she'd almost forgotten what it felt like.
"Rumple!" Belle ran to her love's side while Emma moved towards them, lip curled. The brunette looked up at her. "Emma, what are you doing?"
"Picking on a cripple, by the looks of it," Gold said back, glowering up at the blonde.
"I'm keeping my word." The Sheriff knelt down so she was eye-level with the Dark One. "I told you that if she was harmed in any way, I'd come back here." A smile crossed her face. "Well, here I am."
"I didn't do anything to her," Gold spat back.
Emma swiped her hand again, and he was thrown against the wall, held up by magical bonds. As Emma approached him, she tightened her outstretched hand, and pressure built around his neck. Squeezing tighter and tighter. Constricting his airway. His face reddened as a vein bulged from his forehead.
"You didn't do anything," she said through grinding teeth, "but you knew it would happen, didn't you?" He gurgled something, and she loosened her grip a bit. "Didn't you?"
"I don't know what-"
She clenched her hand into a fist, cutting his air off completely. "Try again, Gold. And this time, make it the truth. Remember." She tapped her forehead with a smile. "Superpower."
He choked out a cough, and she released her fist. "Yes, I knew."
"What is it?" She demanded, moving closer so they were mere inches apart. "What is happening to her?"
"The three versions cannot exist apart long," he answered. "If they remain separated... they will all be destroyed."
Emma's eyes widened. "You're saying that she'll just... fade away?"
He nodded as best he could under his binds. "Disappear from the fabric of time. Regina's story will be unwritten, and it will be as if she never even existed."
"That means she never would have enacted the curse," Mary-Margaret frowned behind her daughter. "She would've never killed my father and become queen. Never would've sent me into hiding."
"Henry would've never been born," Emma whispered.
"Your father and I wouldn't have found each other," her mother continued, eyes wide. "Emma, without Regina, it's not just Henry who wouldn't have been born. You wouldn't have been, either."
"You knew this, and you didn't tell me!" Emma screamed into Gold's face.
He smiled awfully. "Must have slipped my mind."
"Son of a bitch!" Emma hurled him across the room again, slamming him hard into a glass cabinet and dropping him to the floor. Her chest heaved with fury as she stomped towards him. "Goddamn you, Gold! Don't you get what all that means? You'd risk your own grandson's life to get back at her?"
"Revenge has a way of giving us tunnel vision, dear," he coughed up a splatter of blood.
Emma couldn't control herself. She didn't want to use magic on Gold. She wanted to hurt him with her own fists. To feel the release of her rage in his blood and broken bones. So, she knelt over him, and she started hitting him. Her sight blurred red as did Gold's face. She didn't speak. She didn't even think. All she knew was that she wanted to hurt him, and from the sound of his strangled cries, she was succeeding.
"Emma!" Mary-Margaret pried her daughter off of the crumpled man below her. Emma fought against her as Belle ran to Gold's side to tend to his wounds.
"If something happens to her, I swear to God, I'll kill you!" Emma spat at the man furiously. "I swear, Gold-I'll fucking kill you!"
"Emma, stop." Mary-Margaret stepped in front of the blonde, her hands secure on her shoulders. She'd seen Emma angry before plenty of times, but she'd never seen her like that. Her eyes were... They didn't look like Emma at all. The twisted, downward pull of her features made her daughter almost unrecognizable. Deep down, Mary-Margaret admitted to herself that she was afraid of Emma in that moment. It was the coldness in her eyes. The hatred in them. She'd seen it before but only once. In the Evil Queen. She knew what that look was. It was fear and anger and magic, and that was never a good mixture. She had to bring her daughter back from the dark place she was in. So, she did the only thing she could. She placed a hand on Emma's hot cheek. "This isn't you, Emma. It's the magic. It's made you lose control. You've got to come back to me, sweetie. Come back to me." She wrapped her arms around the stiff woman. "Help me find you, Emma."
Slowly, she felt the Savior melt into her arms, and Emma returned the hug full-force. Her body began to shake as she cried against her mother, big, hot tears tumbling down her cheeks.
"There you are," Mary-Margaret said softly, smiling in relief.
"I can't lose her, Mom," she whispered. "I can't."
"You're not going to," Mary-Margaret vowed, rubbing her daughter's back. The two pulled apart, and she looked into those familiar, soft green eyes, grateful to see them again. "We're going to save her." Emma nodded and glanced back to the nearly unconscious Dark One. She looked down at her hands and found her knuckles painted crimson with his blood.
"I wanted to kill him," she said. "I would have if you hadn't stopped me." She shook her head. "I terrified myself."
"That wasn't you," Mary-Margaret assured her. "Magic feeds off of emotions, and yours were very strong just then. I know you, Emma. You're just scared, but look at me." Emma lifted her eyes up to her mother's. "Regina isn't going anywhere. We're going to fix this."
"I know," Emma nodded, taking a deep breath. "Come on. We've got to find Regina. God knows how much time we have before..." She shook her head, refusing to allow herself to think of what would happen if they were to fail. That wasn't even an option. "Let's go."
A phonecall to Henry told them that he and David had taken all three of the Reginas to her vault. They were all still in terrible pain, and they thought that was the only place that might make them all feel safe. Emma and Mary-Margaret jumped into the blonde's nearby Volkswagon, and Emma sped for the cemetary.
"So... do you want to talk about it?" Mary-Margaret asked uncertainly.
Emma sighed. "No, but I've got a feeling you do." She looked over at her mother. "I'm in love with Regina, Mom. I know it probably freaks you out and pisses you off, but it's the truth. I love her."
"It doesn't freak me out," Mary-Margaret said, and Emma gave her an exasperated look. "Well, maybe it is... unusual. I mean, this is the woman who cursed us all and separated our family for twenty-eight years. Not to mention, my ex-stepmother."
Emma frowned, shuddering slightly. "Yeah, no, we're not going there, Mom."
"I guess I just want to know how?" Mary-Margaret questioned. "When did this happen?"
Emma hesitated before shrugging. "I mean, I don't know the exact moment. I kind of had a thing from her since we first met. Like, I thought she was really hot." Mary-Margaret sucked in a sharp breath, and Emma could've sworn she heard her mutter "porn" under her breath. "I don't know. I guess there's always been an attraction. It didn't go beyond physical until Neverland. We were working together to get Henry back, and she was showing me how to use magic and... I don't know. I saw a side to her that I don't think many people ever have. A softer side. After that, it was like my eyes fully opened to her. I saw every part of her, the good and the bad together, and I loved all of her."
"That's beautiful, Emma," Mary-Margaret smiled at her. "And... does she feel the same way?"
Emma frowned. "No, I don't think so. I mean, we have fun together and the sex is amazing, but-"
"What?" Her mother demanded, and Emma's eyes widened. Oops. "You and Regina have... You've... done that?"
"Sort of," the blonde said sheepishly.
"Why?" Mary-Margaret asked. "Were... Were you drunk?"
"No," Emma answered honestly. "We've never been drunk when we've slept together."
The pixie-haired woman's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. "You've done it more than once?"
Emma gnawed on her lower lip. "Yeah."
"How many times?"
"Mom, you don't actually expect me to have kept up with every single time Regina and I have been together, do you?"
"Yes, because I know you have. How many times, Emma?"
Emma sighed. Unfortunately, her mother was right. Emma really was that pathetic. "Thirty-two."
"Over how long a period of time?" Mary-Margaret questioned.
"Three months and six days," Emma answered, blushing under her mother's sharp gaze. "We usually meet up a couple times a week. It has happened more than once in a single day before, though."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Mom? Did you really want to know that Regina and I were screwing each other?" Another breathed "porn" came from the passenger's seat. "It started after Robin left. It was a comfort thing for her. Something to keep her from being lonely all the time. She was desparate-that's the only reason she agreed to it. I mean, why else would she? I'm the idiot who brought her True Love's wife back from the Enchanted Forest and fucked up her whole relationship. She hates me."
Mary-Margaret frowned. "Emma."
"It's the truth," the blonde shook her head. "I'm not going to fool myself into thinking what she and I have is anything more than physical for her. That doesn't mean I stop caring about her, though. I don't love her because I expect her to love me back. I love her because, well, I just do. And I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure she's happy and undo all the pain I've caused her. No matter what that may mean for me." There was a familiar stinging in her eyes, and she cemented her expression. "Can we stop talking about this? We need to figure out how to make Regina a whole person again."
Mary-Margaret pursed her lips with a sigh before looking away from her daughter's poorly-masked sorrow. "Yes, we can stop talking about it. But, for the record, I don't think she hates you. I've seen Regina hate before, and that's not how she looks at you."
Emma managed a small, grateful smile to her mother's kind words. They were just words, though. Just because Mary-Margaret said it, it didn't make it true, no matter how much Emma wished it was. Pulling her car into the cemetery parking lot, Emma threw it into park and rushed for Regina's vault in the middle of the graveyard. Now wasn't the time to wallow over unrequited love. She had to save Regina. Whatever the cost, she had to save the woman she loved.