A/N: Finally back with an update for this one. Thank you so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows. Hopefully all of you enjoy the action as well as the other little, and big, stuff that happens. :)

Rumpelstiltskin had Hook pinned against the ladder under the hatchway, his cane held against Hook's wrist as he tried to choke the pirate.

Hook seemed to know Rumple's playbook considering that his arm protected his throat from Rumple's cane. He grunted as he had to fight harder against Rumple when the imp pushed against him in an attempt to weaken the younger man.

"Hey," Charming yelled as he rushed to get to them. "Come on!"

Charming pulled Rumple away from Hook by the shoulder and spun the pawn shop owner around to face him.

"We've only been out here for a day and you're starting petty fights," Charming asked.

"He started it," Rumple insisted through gritted teeth as he carelessly waved behind him at Hook.

Snow puffed out an incredulous sigh behind Charming.

"Seriously," Charming asked, a little annoyed.

"What," Rumple started. "I simply walked in front of his room on the way out of mine and he accused me of stealing his alcohol."

"You did," Hook exclaimed.

"Please," Rumple shook his head before he turned to Hook. "We both know you drank it all."

"I have a limited supply on this ship. I wouldn't be foolish enough to drink all of it."

"Clearly you don't how foolish you actually are," Rumple quipped.

"That's it," Hook said as he lunged at Rumple.

Rumple raised his cane in defense, the bottom of it pointed outward at Hook as the pirate shooed it away.

Hook batted it away again and again in an attempt to get at Rumple, but the older man continued to push the cane in his direction as though to stab him with it.

"What are you gonna do," Emma asked from the deck as she stared down at the altercation. "Skewer him with your cane?"

"Can we please get back to finding my son," Regina loudly asked from behind Emma on deck, annoyed and angry as she glared down at them after an agitated eye roll.

Charming pulled Rumple away from Hook again and pushed him down the corridor toward Snow.

Snow's eyebrows almost shot into her hairline in surprise as she stepped aside to keep Rumple from running into her. She did, however, hold out her hands to help stop him from falling on his face as he stumbled forward. Her hands barely touched his shoulders before he shook her off and leaned against his side on the opposite wall, away from Snow.

Emma looked back at Regina with an apologetic look, though she didn't like that Regina still referred to Henry as hers and only hers. She thought given the circumstances Regina would know Emma was willing to fight as relentlessly as need be to find and protect Henry. She knew that made him hers as much as it made him Regina's, that and the fact that she too loved the kid.

"I didn't have a lick of my whiskey since we got on board and I know I still had a full bottle from my last trip. Now? There's nothing left," Hook explained as he fanned out the collar of his coat then smoothed out the rest of his outfit. "Only a drop that landed on the floor when I found the bottle tipped over on my desk, which I also haven't touched since my last trip."

"I didn't touch your whiskey. I wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near your things."

"Yeah? Is that why you took the room next to the Captain's Quarters? It's an infirmary. No one should be sleeping there and yet you seemed to make it your home right next to my room."

"There weren't any other beds, idiot," Rumple snarled as he faced Hook again. "The exam bed is the only one left on this horrendous ship."

"First you chug down my whiskey and now you insult my ship?"

"If you can even call this falling apart piece of wood a ship."

"Fine," Hook bitterly spat as he raised his hands in surrender. "Go ahead and make your jokes. I'll always know you're just a desperate man who couldn't get the mother of his child to love him. Coward."

Rumple growled and threw himself at Hook.

Charming intercepted him and held Rumple back.

"She was the coward," Rumple yelled. "She didn't even try to raise Bae! She gave up on us to be with some filthy pirate who could only ever commit to the sea. You love this ship more than you could ever have loved her, more than she could ever have loved you."

"You're wrong, mate. It's you she couldn't love," Hook calmly, coolly said.

"Hey!"

Everyone stopped fussing and looked up at the voice responsible for startling all of them.

Emma stood above the four of them with a tight expression. Suddenly, everyone below deck could see the dark circles under her eyes and the unnatural paleness of her skin. She looked tired and one hundred percent fed up.

Charming let go of Rumple and the older man flattened out his suit before he focused on Emma again like the rest of them.

"Henry is out there somewhere with two people who tortured and almost killed the person you guys still see as the Evil Queen. If you think she's so powerful and still managed to face her own death at the hands of those two, there's no telling what's going to happen to an eleven year old kid that isn't familiar with any world but the one we just came from. He's alone and in their hands and if we do find him, he better not be dead because of meaningless arguments like this. I promise you that if that's the case, you'll be as dead as the people that took my son from me."

Charming and Snow stared up at their daughter with worry and shock. Everyone, including Regina, felt the absolute truth behind her words. The two of them heard the Evil Queen in their daughter's promise and nothing at all like the little girl, or rather woman, let alone the savior they thought Emma to be.

"Good for you, deary," Rumple said as he pushed Hook aside and started to climb up the ladder. "A little vengeance goes a long way."

"No," Charming and Snow loudly refuted the idea.

Emma furrowed her brow when she heard a familiar voice behind her mirror that same word in sync with her parents.

Within seconds, all eyes were on Regina as Rumple joined them on the deck.

Rumple chuckled.

"Concerned about our little princess, are we," Rumple knowingly, confidently teased.

Regina ground her teeth, her jaw tightly clenched as she looked down at the floorboards and collected herself.

"Henry doesn't need her looking for revenge," Regina answered as she tried to shrug it off.

"Oh, right," Rumple gave his infamous crocodile grin. "Because he's already got one mother out for blood."

Hook crawled onto the deck followed by Snow then Charming. Snow frowned and quizzically looked over Regina when she noticed the brunette hadn't argued or refuted the claim.

"Regina? Are you..." Snow trailed off, hesitant to hear the truth. "Are you going to kill them?"

Regina boldly met Snow's gaze before she answered in a low, gravelly voice.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get Henry back."

Charming groaned and raised his hands above his head in defeat.

"I can't believe this," Charming angrily stated before he dropped his hands to his sides with a slap to his outer thighs. "All this time you've been trying to convince us you're changing and now you're prepared to slaughter all of Neverland? You'll never change, Regina. Don't fool yourself into thinking that and don't expect to fool me into believing it either."

Regina clenched her fists at her sides as she tried not to feel hurt by Charming's harsh statement.

"Hey," Emma barked as she stepped in front of Regina as Charming tried to get close to the other woman. "Back off. We've been through a lot the last twenty-four hours, okay? Cut her some slack. That part of her, the dark and vindictive part, could actually help us. If she's willing to go there, we should be thankful. I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't want to dig myself into that dark place again. Not when I tried so hard to get out of it like she has."

Snow shook her head.

"How can you be okay with this," she asked Emma.

"Look, I don't know where Henry is and I don't know much about this world, but I do know that the best way to find Henry is if Regina and I work together on this."

"That doesn't mean you have to accept the darkness in her heart," Snow argued, though she sounded more like Mary Margaret.

"You're right," Emma agreed.

Hook retracted the anchor as he avoided the conversation.

Regina sadly stared down at the ground and almost looked defeated.

"I don't have to accept it, but I do accept it."

Regina looked up and stared slack jawed at the back of Emma's head.

Rumple chuckled in the background as she watched the scene unfold.

Hook took the wheel and started to sail onward.

"You don't have to agree with me," Emma continued. "But I'm hoping you care enough about me to respect my decision."

Charming and Snow sighed as they looked at each other then distrustfully at Regina before their eyes found Emma again.

"Leave Regina alone the rest of the trip, okay," Emma continued. "If you so much as even try to condemn her for the choices she makes here or the things she's done in the past, we're done talking."

"You're..." Snow started, taken aback. "You're choosing Regina over us?"

"No, I'm choosing us as a team, the four of us. If you can't deal with that then...I won't be able to deal with you. Got it?"

Regina felt a mix of emotions between pride, safety, and unworthiness toward Emma's sentiments as she stood behind the Savior.

"Now lets get back to saving Henry," Emma said as she headed toward the globe.

Emma tried to check their progress but could only see the outlined, glowing area that vaguely told her where Henry was taken. She sighed and moved her hand toward the map. Her fingertip touched the spot Henry supposedly was and sent a small ripple across the globe from the contact like when a finger was pressed to a non-touch computer screen. Her expression fell from tight and angered to sad and partially defeated.

Rumple snickered as he slowly walked around Regina like a prowling panther.

Snow and Charming followed after Emma and paid little to no mind to Rumple or Regina.

Rumple stopped behind Regina, close enough for the brunette to feel his breath on the back of her neck. He grinned as he leaned in and darkly purred her ear.

"Charming is right, you know. You'll never be the person you're trying to be. The darkest parts of you are too strong for you to ever be one of them."

Regina could feel the magic in her spark to life. She could feel all her power and all her anger rise up to the surface as purple magic crackled at her fingertips. As upset as Rumple made her, she couldn't control the worn look on her face as unshed tears formed in her eyes. She allowed the dark truth to fill her mind and her black heart.

"You'll never be good, Regina. Just as you said they'll never accept me, they won't ever accept you."

"Emma accepts me," Regina said with a sliver of hope in her voice as her magic diminished.

Rumple chuckled with dark amusement.

"Miss Swan will soon realize she made a mistake defending you, deary. It's a foolish thing to think you'll change, as Charming said. It's even more foolish to think she'll ever really be on your side."

Regina took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh to calm herself.

Rumple furrowed his brow as he looked over her with a puzzled expression. She walked around to stand in front of her, a little to her left, and read the expression on her face.

"My, my, deary," Rumple started as his eyes widened in realization. "I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Whatever you're thinking about her, it will never happen."

A large grin slowly spread across his face. It reached his eyes before the corners of his mouth could reach his ears. He walked away like she meant nothing, as if she were gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

Regina closed her eyes and tried not to let the imp get to her, though their history proved it was all he ever did.

Snow placed a hand on Emma's shoulder as she came to stand behind her daughter in front of the globe.

"We're sorry, Emma," Snow started. "We haven't exactly been making this any easier on you."

"No, you haven't," Emma flatly said as she refused to look at them, her gaze solely set on the assumed location of her son.

Emma pulled her finger away from the globe and brought it down to her side as she continued to stare.

"You know we want to find Henry as much as you do, right," Charming asked as he placed a hand on Emma's other shoulder.

Emma hesitated a minute with a blank expression on her face before she nodded.

Charming used his hand on her shoulder to turn Emma toward him.

Snow let her hand fall from Emma's other shoulder as he did so and gave a small smile meant to assure Emma they meant what they said.

"We're going to do our best to bring him home," Charming said as he looked straight into Emma's eyes to ensure she saw the sincerity in his.

Emma stared at Charming for a long moment before she looked to Snow. She said nothing to either of them then turned and walked to starboard.

Snow and Charming worriedly looked at each other before Charming watched the blonde lean against the side of the ship and stare out at the water. He sighed then held Snow back when she tried to step toward their daughter.

Snow looked back at Charming and he shook his head before he removed his hand from her bicep.

Emma frowned as she watched tiny waves roll across the vast sea and occasionally smack against the ship. It seemed to be all she could do while she impatiently waited to get to Henry. She sighed as she tried not to break down and cry. It wasn't like her to cry and she really didn't want to do it in front of everyone on the ship with her.

She closed her eyes and let the breeze glide across her face and gently flow through her hair. She took a deep breath and tried to clear mind. She heard the almost rhythmic sound of the water hit the ship again and again. Then a second sound overlapped that of the waves. A woosh in the water caused Emma to quizzically knit her brow, her eyes still closed. After a moment of only hearing the water against the ship again, she relaxed.

Her calm didn't last.

A flop in the water followed by a small thud against the ship raised Emma's suspicions enough for her to open her eyes that time. She scrunched up her face as she tried to find the source of the sound and looked over the side of the ship. She intently stared down into the dark depths of the sea when a sliver of something skimmed past the surface, not close enough for Emma to identify. It quickly disappeared as it moved lower, into the darkness the deeper parts of the water offered.

"What the hell," Emma quietly asked no one in particular as she leaned further over the side of the Jolly Roger, even more puzzled.

Regina started toward the brig as Rumple's words sunk in.

Blonde hair cascaded over the front of her shoulders and swayed in her face with the breeze as the ship rocked with the gentle current. She held the side of the ship with both hands as she tried to find the thing she saw only a few seconds ago. After a quick moment before she decided her eyes had played tricks on her, another sliver of something hurried along the side of the ship. It passed closer to the surface, a dark gray with maybe a hint of green slithered into her line of vision.

"Holy shit!"

Emma straightened up as she pulled her head and hair away from the water. She pressed a hand to her stomach when nausea hit her as the thing disappeared below the surface and reappeared moments later with a friend.

Emma's exclamation caused Regina to freeze in place., still a ways from the hatchway.

"Emma," Snow frowned, a little concerned as she watched her daughter slightly back away from the side of the ship.

Snow took a cautious step forward as Regina, though she went unnoticed, turned to Emma from across the ship.

Charming squinted at Emma from his place beside Hook behind the wheel.

Hook glanced over every so often, as confused as the rest of them, but didn't try to focus on much else but steering.

A flip flop sound loudly came from the water near Emma as the blonde let go of the ship with the last remaining hand she had on it. The sound seemed hurried as a second flip flop briefly overlapped it.

Snow continued toward Emma.

Regina swallowed as she self-consciously gravitated toward the blonde. She could feel Rumple's eyes on her from his new place on deck between the globe and the hatchway.

"Uh," Emma jumped when another eery sound came from the water. "We've got company."

Another small thud against of the ship made Regina move faster. A second thud accompanied with a third that almost occurred simultaneously caused Regina to immediately fall in-step with Emma at starboard. She peered over the side of the ship with an idea as to the cause of the noise, but it didn't stop her from widening her eyes in shock at the sight of two eels in the water.

Both eels had one yellow eye, one white.

"That's not good," Regina said just before one of the eels swam backward, away from the ship.

It stayed close enough to the ship that it could see all those that came to stare at it just as Snow joined Emma and Regina.

"Snow," Charming asked as he remained at Hook's side. "What is it?"

One eel swam around the stationary eel as the unmoving eel seemed to focus its attention on the group. It crept forward, closer to the ship, and after a few seconds their target became clear when the swimming eel stopped in front of the ship just underneath Emma.

Regina gasped, though she couldn't be heard over the sound that came next.

The eel against the ship fired itself up and sparks of electricity ignited under water. It purposely rammed itself into the ship at full charge and a green glow illuminated the underside of the Jolly Roger. The falloff of the green glow lit up a few feet of the sea beneath them.

The eel repeated the action as the other remained trained on the ship's occupants.

"What is it doing," Snow asked with panic as she fearfully watched the eel slam into the ship again.

Regina ran through all the reasons why the eel would do such a thing before the right one occurred to her. Instead of providing an answer, Regina reached an arm around Emma's stomach before she grabbed the crook of Emma's left elbow with her left hand.

The eel continued to create a green glow in the water as it thumped into the ship a third time.

"Get away from the water," Regina yelled as she pushed Emma back, toward the stairs that led up to the platform that overlooked the deck with the steering wheel at the front of it.

Snow didn't move as she stared down with wide eyes and a rapid heartbeat.

Regina quickly noticed seconds after she pushed Emma away and, without a second thought, spun toward Snow. She violently grabbed the raven haired woman's arm and yanked her inward in the same direction she'd pushed Emma.

Before either woman could ask Regina why she'd done that, the ship abruptly jerked to the right as harsh waves overtook the once peaceful water. All three of them slipped on deck in the sudden movement and fell to the floor.

Charming stumbled in a few directions as he fell toward the stairs and braced himself on the top of them before he could tumble down them.

Hook tightly held on to the wheel as he fought to keep himself upright while the shakiness of the ship threw Rumple against the wall of the platform Hook stood on. Rumple slumped against the wall and his eyes fluttered closed. After a moment, blood started to trickle down the back of his head and neck, behind his ear and down onto his suit.

Regina scrambled to get onto her feet as a cracking sound erupted from the side of the ship. She struggled a few times as the ship jarred back and forth and side to side.

Snow slid toward the rear of the ship and reached out to grab the bottom corner of the stairs to hold herself.

Emma grunted and scrunched up her face with a strong effort to stand as she rolled onto her stomach and tried to push off the deck with both her hands and knees. She barely managed to lift her knees off the deck when one of the eels impacted the ship and forced it to jostle back and to the right. Her feet slid out from underneath her and she landed on her chest. She immediately yelped as her chin bumped against the deck then tried to stand again.

Regina made her way toward Hook and started to shout commands.

"Steer left!"

Hook opened his mouth to either argue with or question her about why that would be necessary, but he didn't need to when a whirlpool swirled to the right of the ship. The Jolly Roger was being sucked in by its pull as green flashed like lightning and another cracking sound echoed in the air around them when the ship unevenly dipped into the water.

"Get us away from that that thing," Regina ordered before the unpredictable movements of the ship made her trip over herself and smack down on her outer right thigh and hip. Her elbow banged against the deck as she grunted and slid feet first into the bottom of the small stairway that led to the platform.

Her boots stopped her from making an further impact against the first step and kept her relatively still as the ship started to sink into the whirlpool.

The back half of the ship chugged water as the front half tipped back as it started to stick straight up into the sky.

They weren't just sinking into the whirlpool. They were sinking in general.

Snow screamed as her hands slipped off the bottom corner of the stairs. She slid down to the sinking end of the ship and nearly fell into the water before she caught a rogue rope off a back sail.

"Snow!"

Charming's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched his wife dangle by a loose rope over the sunken part of the Jolly Roger partially consumed by the whirlpool.

Seconds later, the whirlpool expanded and another crack echoed throughout the surrounding area. The ship sunk faster.

Emma felt the Jolly Roger rumble as she tried to find her footing only to be caught off guard by yet another eel attack. The glowing eel charged another part of the ship and caused another crack in the side.

The ship's reaction forced Emma to roll onto her back before she slid down toward her mother. She yelled and reached out for the same bottom corner of the stairs Snow previously held onto. She clung on for dear life with one hand while she held the other one out in the direction the dangling woman.

Snow's feet then dipped into the water as the ship sank.

"Mom," Emma shouted as she saw the water rise to Snow's calves then her knees as the ship went further down.

"Emma," Charming yelled out as he saw both wife and daughter barely holding on.

Suddenly, Emma saw the active eel swim up to Snow.

"Mom!"

The eel only faintly glowed at it approached Snow, but it started to charge up the closer it got.

Emma's eyes went wide.

"No," Emma screamed at the top of her lungs before the eel wrapped around one of Snow's calves.

Snow shrieked as the eel stung her. She gripped tighter to the rope as she gritted her teeth.

"Snow! Snow," Charming yelled as he held on to the banister at the side of the stairs.

He looked down at his wife who wasn't too far away from him, but not close enough for him to reach out and grab.

Emma's grip started to slide. She looked back to see her fingers slip away from the corner like her mother's had with tears in her ears that threatened to fall.

Hook steered as far to the left as he could, but he doubted nothing could save them at that point. He kept his face twisted to display all the effort he put forth and continued to do what he could to get them away from the whirlpool despite his negativity.

Emma turned back to her mother in time to see the eel tighten around Snow's calve and shock her again.

Snow cried out and her hands loosened on the rope. She slid further into the water but stopped herself when the water reached her waist. Her hands were sure to have rope burn, but she tried to pull herself up the rope anyway. She cried as she lifted herself as much as the limited amount of muscles in her arms allowed her, but she failed to do more than rise half an inch north.

The dormant eel swam into action and slithered over to Snow's other leg.

Emma's fingers slipped again as she shouted again. She snapped her head up to the corner of the stairs and suddenly locked eyes with Regina as the brunette curled her body closer to Emma.

"Give me your hand," Regina yelled over the rush of the whirlpool.

"I can't," Emma yelled as she held back tears much closer to falling in that moment.

"You have to! Take my hand," Regina demanded as she shifted her legs against the top of the stairs to ground herself in all the chaos. "If you don't, you'll fall in!"

Emma shook her head as she tried to reach up to grab the corner of the stairs with her left hand. She couldn't fight the wind the whirlpool stirred up and her left arm fell to her side with more force than she could equalize. Her fingers slipped yet again and her fingertips were almost the only thing holding her up.

Snow screamed out in pain again as both eels shocked her.

Soon after the shock, the eels abandoned Snow and started to swim up toward Emma as far as the water permitted.

In a weakened state, Snow almost let go of the rope as the whirlpool started to ring her around in the bustling current.

"Snow, you have to hold on," Charming commanded with his booming voice as he tried not to worry about or cry for his wife. He had to stay strong if he planned on saving her.

"I can't hold on," Snow shook her head as Emma, Regina, and Charming all heard the tears in voice as they streamed down her face. "I'm not strong enough."

Emma shot her attention back to her mother as a tear of her own rolled down her cheek.

"Emma," Regina yelled out but couldn't get the blonde to look at her.

Charming whipped his head toward his daughter at the sound of her name.

"No," he yelled. "Emma!"

"I've got her," Regina barked at Charming as he tried to move toward Emma.

"Mom," Emma yelled to Snow, her tone almost pleading. "Just hang on! Please!"

"I'm sorry," Snow softly said as she shook her head and slipped further into the water.

"No," Emma screamed.

"Keep talking to Snow," Regina ordered Charming.

Charming's eyes immediately found Regina's for the briefest of moments before he turned back to his wife.

"Snow! Please! It'll all be over soon," Charming tried to assure her.

"Emma," Regina more forcefully yelled as she noticed the eels creeping up toward the younger woman.

Emma swallowed the lump that had quickly formed in her throat as she tried to hold back her tears and turned to Regina.

"You have to trust me," Regina said as she held out her left hand. "I can save her if you just take my hand."

Emma could hear the sincerity in Regina's voice as much as she could see it in chocolate brown eyes.

Regina curled her body further toward Emma and side-stepped like a crab along the bottom step to ready herself for what she had planned. She extended her hand even more, closer to Emma's, and hoped the blonde would listen to her for once in the two years they'd known each other.

Emma took a deep breath and let go of the corner. She fell toward Snow with a yelp.

Regina bent her knees and leaned over before she quickly clasped their hands and caught Emma. She gritted her teeth and started to pull Emma up with her left hand, her weak hand.

Emma shot her other hand up and gripped Regina's forearm. She tried to help herself up as much as Regina tried to pull her dead weight.

Regina still ended up doing most of the work as she took a chance and slid her left foot off the bottom stair, leaving only her right foot as their leverage to avoid falling into the whirlpool directly under them. She extended her left leg as far possible, nearly doing the splits against the bottom of the stairs, and reached her left foot between Emma's thighs.

The top of her foot cradled Emma's center and the blonde jumped at the contact.

"Lean toward me," Regina said through gritted teeth, her face still contorted in her efforts to lift Emma.

Emma didn't argue and did as Regina told her. She leaned into Regina's leg but was careful not to weigh the other woman down. She tightened her core muscles, her abdomen strained, as she ensured only her lower half leaned toward Regina. She kept her stomach and chest off Regina's leg as best she could.

Regina used both her foot between Emma's legs and her left hand to pull the younger woman up to her and managed to do it within a few long, painful seconds. She wrapped her right arm around Emma's waist and held Emma flush against her while she straightened out her left leg. She removed her foot from between Emma's thighs and, without any other choice, replaced it with her knee as she slowly let go of Emma's hand. She panted as she started to relax but continued to hold Emma against herself.

Regina slid her left arm around Emma's waist and pressed her right forearm against the deck. She pushed them up into a sitting position and forced Emma's back against the railing for the stairs. She let go of Emma as she did so and took back her arm.

"Hold on to the banister," Regina breathlessly said.

Emma reached behind her and grabbed one of the wooden rails just above her head.

"Don't let go," Regina said with a smoky voice, strained from the previous yelling.

Regina, without permission, grabbed Emma's right hand with her own. She squeezed it and deeply stared into Emma's panicked green eyes.

"I need you to do exactly what you did in the mine before we left Storybrooke. Focus all your magic and give it to me," Regina seriously said. "I'm going to need all the strength we have combined to do this, okay?"

"Okay," Emma quietly said before she gulped.

"This," Regina shook their joined hands between their bodies. "Is where I need you to focus all your magic. Ready?"

Emma sheepishly nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Now," Regina commanded as she held out a hand to Snow, her palm facing the woman.

Emma took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She squeezed Regina's hand as she tried to conjure up magic she'd rarely been able to use on cue. She felt Regina's magic, just as she had in the mine, and even tasted it on the back of her tongue.

Wispy purple smoke swirled around the rope holding Snow and wrapped it around the woman. She kept her eyes trained on Snow until she had the younger woman secured in the rope.

Snow relaxed her arms and stared, utterly shocked, at Regina.

Regina didn't feel Emma's magic.

The brunette pushed forward with her plan and looked up at the pulley that held the rope. She kept her hand on Snow as she used her eyes to channel the next part of her magic. She forced the out-of-reach pulley to move and magically reeled Snow upward.

"Charming," Regina called out to the prince as she kept her eyes glued to the pulley. "Catch her!"

Regina rigged the rope and pulley to sway and swung Snow toward Charming. She forced the pulley to lower Snow as she swung the woman at him and Snow crashed into her husband.

Charming wrapped an arm around his wife's waist as they continued to sink and braced himself and her against the banister with his left hand.

"Emma," Regina snapped her attention to the blonde in front of her.

Emma's eyes shot open to meet glowing purple irises.

"I need you," Regina said.

Emma remained frozen as she stared at the brunette.

"I can't do it," Emma insisted. "I can't feel it, channel it, whatever!"

Regina gripped Emma's hand tighter and sent a shock through Emma's arm. Her magic prickled under Emma's skin as it zapped her arm before it zapped her heart.

"Ow! Hey," Emma complained without letting go of Regina's hand.

"Focus!"

"Conjuring magic is not an intellectual endeavor. It's emotion."

The words flooded Emma's mind as she remembered what Rumple taught her about magic.

"You must ask yourself why am I doing this? Who am I protecting?"

Emma stared at Regina and saw nothing else but purple eyes that faded to their normal brown color.

"Feel it!"

Everything got quiet except the sound of Regina's breath and her own. Emma couldn't hear the sea or her parents shouting or the ship falling into the whirlpool. Her tunnel vision on Regina suddenly applied to all of her senses.

Like a flame coming to life from a recently struck match, her magic ignited within her. Her walls, her only defense mechanism, broke like a dam and her magic surged through her in a frenzy to reach Regina. When her magic traveled to their joined hands, blue and purple sparks crackled over their hands as they twisted and wound up around each other like a double helix across tan and fair skin.

Regina gasped and immediately slammed her left palm against the deck when she felt what she needed to proceed. She clawed at the wood beneath her fingers and a rush of blue and purple lightning strikes scrambled across the tilted ship floor.

Emma subconsciously parted her lips as she felt their joined hands warm. She could feel the magic leave her body and mix with Regina's like she'd felt it in the mine. She had never felt something so intense before in her life, no connection stronger than the specific link she felt with Regina.

Their combined magic skittered and bolted all over the ship. It rushed to fix the cracked and destroyed side of the Jolly Roger as Regina kept her hand on the deck.

The eels hooked their tails together and charged up before they sent an opposing shock through the water.

The shock intersected Regina and Emma's magic and ran up to Regina's hand. An intense shock hit Regina's hand and surged through her like an unrelenting electric current. She winced and squeezed her eyes shut. After a few moments, she lifted her hand off the deck, but continued to hold Emma's hand the entire time.

Emma heard Regina give a small cry of pain when she closed her eyes. She went against Regina's advice and let go of the railing. She lunged forward and touched the deck like Regina had before she sent her own magic back down to the wrecked part of the ship. She heard Regina pant against her shoulder, their bodies infinitely closer, as Emma kept her hand on the deck. Their new position made it look like a game of Twister, except only their upper halves were close.

"Regina," Emma breathlessly called out as she tried to focus both on repairing the ship and getting the brunette's attention.

Regina opened her eyes as she inhaled then turned her head to try and look into Emma's eyes. She leaned back and rested her weight on her left forearm as she pressed her palm against the deck again. Her magic danced with Emma's across the ship floor as it quickly made it's way to the damaged side of the ship.

Emma squeezed Regina's hand tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. She could feel her palm sweat against Regina's.

"Get us out of here," Emma said to Regina as she made it a point to find the other woman's eyes. "I'll fix the ship."

"You want me to magically transport an entire ship," Regina struggled to ask as she felt herself start to shake.

"We don't have a choice."

Regina sighed as her forearm gave out under her weight. She fell onto her back and closed her eyes, her palm still face down on the deck. She visualized the ship and everyone on it as she made her body a conduit for her magic as well as Emma's. She used their joined hands to bypass half of Emma's magic to aid hers in surrounding the ship with thick purple clouds of smoke.

The whirlpool sparked with another shock from the eels.

"Ah," Emma cringed as the shock jolted her further forward.

She landed haphazardly on top of Regina but stayed focused on the ship's repair.

Regina groaned on impact as her brow furrowed, eyes still closed, and she tried to quickly refocus on the task at hand. Half the ship was covered in purple smoke when she felt her magic exhaust her. She arched her back and screamed in crescendo.

Another shock from the eels and tears flew down Regina's cheeks as though they were jumping ship, Regina's eyes being the ship.

Emma felt her pain through their physical and somewhat emotional connection. She suddenly found herself redirecting the eels' shock onto herself. She whimpered as the pain wracked her body, the eels merciless. She fought back with a stronger dose of her magic, but felt her energy dwindle within seconds.

Regina used the last bit of magic she had to channel most of Emma's limited supply into finishing the transport job.

Emma screamed in unison with Regina as she felt all her magic being ripped from her, more than half forced from her body by Regina while the rest of it of her own volition to fix the ship.

The top of the ship disappeared from sight in the smoke. For what felt like hours as Regina and Emma shook and writhed in pain, the ship vanished then poofed into calm waters away from the whirlpool.

Emma cried out when the smoke cleared and collapsed completely onto Regina in a heap. The last bit of her magic sparked out of her like a faulty wire on the fritz as it rebuilt a small part of the ship, the final part that needed fixed. She curled her head into the crook of Regina's neck as the top of her head brushed against Regina's right cheek.

Regina's chest intensively heaved under Emma, their hands still clasped together between their stomachs. A sheen of sweat coated her face and matted some of her brunette hair to her heated forehead. Her eyes fluttered open a few times, but she couldn't keep them open. She could tell by Emma's deep breathing that the blonde had blacked out.

"Emma," Snow and Charming alternated calling out their daughter's name as they ran toward Regina and Emma.

"Emma? Honey," Snow softly asked as though she would eventually hear a response.

"Emma!"

Charming chose to yell like a barbarian instead of using a soothing voice like Snow had, no matter how close he got. He didn't seem to understand that some people liked their hearing.

It infuriated Regina as she struggled to fight off her exhaustion. Out of her and Emma, one of them had to stay awake to find Henry. Unfortunately, her body didn't agree.

"Emma," Snow asked again as she leaned over the blonde's back with tears in her eyes as well as her voice.

"Blacked...out," Regina softly, tiredly said before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Heads up that there will be more action to come in the next chapters. Until then, thanks for reading and please review! Like I said, your response to this story is what fuels it so let me know what you think. :D

Also, I do proof read all my chapters, but somehow there still seem to be mistakes I miss. If there were any in this chapter, please forgive me and know that all of them are mine.