A/N: Second Emma chapter, away!
(Edited and updated as off 11/3/2015)
A Gambit in Trust
Emma II
Emma learned many harsh and difficult lessons during her time as a bail bondsperson. Among the most terrifying was the grim fact that there were few things in the world as dangerous as a drug addict lost in a raging stupor. When someone came at you with vicious intent and they could not be reasoned with? You either had to get gone, or put them down.
Anton's jerky movements, unfocused, jittery eyes, and exclamations damning a person named James who was not there all set off Emma's warning bells. The man rapidly growing into the gargantuan proportions beyond his natural form turned them into a claxon.
"Move!" She grabbed the closest people to her – Nova née Sister Astrid and Archie – and draggedthem toward the side of the deck, grunting in the effort. The wood groaned in protest of its new load and began to crack under the giant's weight behind them. Without having a chance to even check over her shoulder, she leapt over the edge of the ship, pulling the two along with her in a flailing tangle of limbs and shouts.
The harbor's frigid, murky water became her entire world for a heartbeat before she orientated herself and swam upward and toward the dock, hoping Nova and Archie were doing the same. With a gasping breath, she broke the surface just in time to see Anton – now five times taller than he had any right to be – snap the Jolly Roger's main mast in half.
Any schadenfreude joy she felt at the damage to the pirate's precious ship was tempered at the sight of Regina and Ruby sprinting off the boat and away from the falling debris toward the port proper. The rest of the pier seemed to have been abandoned and Emma hoped those who had ran would seek help.
"I-I-I need t-to get the other f-fairies." Nova's teeth chattered together as she spoke. Emma glanced over her shoulder and found the woman gliding through the water with a grace she had not expected. Archie trailed behind her, wading through the current on clumsy strokes. His pallor worried Emma, and she wondered how much more the man could handle without getting rest. She redoubled her effort into swimming for dry land as swiftly as she could manage. The trio reached the edge of the pier within a minute and Emma hoisted herself out of the water with a soft grunt.
She offered a hand to help the other woman out of the water, and Nova took it with a grateful, quivering smile. "Do you have any dust left?" Emma asked, reaching back down to help the therapist out of the water, earning a soft spoken thanks from the man. The fairy shook her head, rubbing her arms for warmth.
"Used m-most of it, and, well…" She reached into the pouch on her hip, bringing out a tiny, soaked clump of dust. "I don't think it really works when wet?"
"Always something," Archie said, somewhere between joking and distraught.
Emma bit back a curse and the urge to throw a tantrum in frustration. "Go for help," she ordered instead. "Get Mother Superior and whoever else can actually do something about this." She looked back to the giant, who balanced one foot on the Roger and the other on the dock. He looked around their surroundings with straight confusion on his face. "I'll figure out some way to distract him, keep him from town." Nova nodded and was off like a shot, sprinting as fast as her legs could take her toward her car.
"Be careful Emma," Archie implored, concern in his kind eyes. She nodded, and Archie raced after Nova.
Okay, Emma thought, turning in the opposite direction toward the giant. No time for kid gloves. She caught up to Regina and Ruby on the edge of the pier. Her newly reinstated deputy had her phone pressed against her ear while Regina stared at her hand, which she held in a strained fist. Emma frowned at that.
"—damned giant at the docks. Yes I'm serious, we need to get some help down here—" Emma tuned the woman out, assuming she was speaking with either Mary Margaret or David, and addressed Regina.
"I think the kid'll understand using magic." She kept one eye on Anton, who now tried to yank his foot free of the frigate. The wood groaned, squeaked, and cracked with every movement. "Kind of an emergency here."
Regina blinked, dropping her fist. "Only if absolutely necessary, Miss Swan." Emma grimaced at the return to formality. Regina stood, clearly torn, and Emma decided not to poke the bear. Even if nothing would make her happier at that moment than having a magical powerhouse at her back.
"Yeah, well, any suggestions on how to stop a giant from destroying everything in his path?" Regina let out a heavy breath through her nose.
"Working on it."
With a grunt of effort that roared like thunder, Anton broke his foot free of the deck. Wood flew in every direction and the Jolly Roger lilted from side to side as it drifted away from the dock toward the open ocean. Anton grabbed the broken mast as he did so, hoisting it up to wield it as if it were a club.
Emma brought her gun up and slid her finger along the slide. "Anton!" She shouted up to the man. He turned his unfocused, violet-glowing eyes onto her, and his lips twisted into a snarl. She forced herself to forget he was a friend. "You need to calm down!" The giant took a step, a guttural sound releasing from his throat that shook the ground. She did not hesitate.
Emma pulled the trigger.
Three disheartening clicks later, and no bullets riddled the giant's leg. Emma stared at her gun with betrayal in her heart. "You've got to be kidding me," she said.
"Run!" Regina commanded them and a firm hand gripped Emma shoulder and pushed her along.
"We need to keep him away from the town," Ruby said, needlessly. She held back from going full out to keep pace with them. Emma ejected her gun's drenched clip, catching it with her off hand, and cleared the barrel.
"Open to suggestions," she said, trying to ignore the earth shaking beneath her boots. She reached to her back pocket for her backup clip, but found nothing there. "You have to be fucking kidding me." She amended her earlier declaration, realizing they had rushed after Cora before she'd even geared up.
She was the worst cop in the world.
She stuffed the useless clip into her pocket and holstered her gun, ignoring the queer looks she received from her companions in giant baiting and wracking her brain for an alternate plan. "Think he'll follow us into the water?"
"If he doesn't, nobody's going to be there to stop him marching straight to downtown," Regina answered, her breath coming in quick puffs. A chilling brush of breeze accompanied with a flickering shadow urged Emma too glance behind her in time to see Anton reaching the mast-turned-club back for a swing.
"Move!" She slammed her arms out to either side, shoving each woman tumbling away. Emma dove forward, leaning her shoulder into a roll.
Wood thundered against asphalt, and the pavement gave first. Spider web cracks burst from the point of impact like lightning in the sky, reaching all the way to where Emma crouched a handful of yards away. She gulped, and instinctive fearful reaction to the sudden reality of how this situation was probably going to end.
Anton growled a booming cry of frustration and raised the pillar of death again, this time aiming at the closest person to him – Regina.
Emma moved without thinking. "Hey, Jackass!" She made a beeline for the gap between the giant's legs, drawing a pocket knife from her belt as she did so, grateful for her addiction to cop procedurals (rule nine, always carry a knife). "Aim for the actual threat!" Anton paused just long enough in consideration for Emma to get between his legs and lunge the knife straight for the meat of his left calf.
The knife freaking bent and her grip slipped, slicing through her gloves and digging into flesh. She hissed in pain and threw the useless weapon to the side, clenching her fingers into a tight fist as fresh crimson bloomed between them.
"James!" Anton bellowed, and a hand half the size of Emma shot at her faster than she could dodge. The blow hit her across the entire length of her body, sending her tumbling through the air in a moment of jarring weightlessness only to have it cut short as she became well acquainted with the concrete ground.
Emma groaned and tasted blood. She hoped it meant she had only bitten her tongue rather than a sign she was bleeding internally, but judging from the fact that her entire left arm already felt like it was going to be a gigantic bruise, Emma did not hold out much hope. The shaking ground drew her back to the present and urged her to move again or else be crushed underfoot.
Literally.
Emma rolled to her knees in time to see Anton's murderous eyes fixed only on her. "You've got to remember, Anton!" She tried the reasoning route once more, her words holding a newfound lisp. Emma filed away the annoyance that brought for later. "I'm not James! Remember the Enchanted Forest? Hook? It's Emma Swan!"
The giant did not even blink as he brought the ship's mast down for another blow. Emma lunged into another roll, unable to hold back the pained cry at using her strained side to absorb the impact.
"No more tricks, bastard! Only a coward uses deception as a weapon." Anton lunged out a kick, and Emma gained her feet and dodged once more, her breathing labored. She scrapped any idea involving wearing down the giant.
"Says the thirty-foot-tall magical monster from another frickin' realm!"
"How dare you call me a monster!?" Anton tried to stomp on her, an extra burst of quickness in his motions. Emma scrambled backward.
Antagonize the thing trying to kill you, Emma. Damn brilliant. She scolded herself and urged her brain trying to produce something resembling a plan.
"Hey, Asshole!" Ruby's sudden shout diverted Anton's attention to something behind Emma. A whistling pierced the air a moment later, and Emma looked up in time to see a harpoon jet past over her head and embed itself into the meaty part of Anton's shoulder. The giant howled in pain and rage, dropping the mast to the ground with a deafening thunk.
Emma risked a glance behind her to see Ruby at the helm of a tiny fisherman's boat no bigger than ten feet, with Regina standing at the aft of the ship at a mounted harpoon gun, feet planted at shoulder-width and back rigid straight. The predator's smirk she wore stirred something primal in Emma.
"Floor it, Miss Lucas!" The order rolled off the former mayor's tongue, natural as breathing. Ruby gunned the boat zero to full throttle, and Anton's wails doubled in intensity as the nylon rope strained between the harpoon and the boat. The giant took a step forward to keep balance, and grabbed the rope with both chubby hands.
Emma's eyes widened and she ran to the side just as Anton pulled on the rope with all his might. The grating sound of shearing metal reached her ears, and she chanced a look back to see the harpoon gun sailing through the air toward the giant and the fisherman's boat spinning out into the harbor.
The gun arced through the air and thunked against Anton's sternum, knocking the giant off-balance enough to put him on his ass. Anton stared at the blood pouring out of his wound, a dumbfounded look in his eyes. Emma used the moment it gave her to glance toward the out-of-control vessel, but she could not see either Regina or Ruby to know if they were.
Worry gnawed at her, but she focused on the present.
"What is this?" Anton asked between grunts of pain, trying to break the rope free from both the harpoon gun and the rod of metal stuck in his chest. Every time he yanked on the nylon, Emma heard a sharp intake of breath, and she could see the beginnings of tears forming at the corner of his eyes. The purple glow of magic began fading to white.
Guilt-tinged hope filled her. "Anton?" She kept her voice firm, but calm, in the hopes that the pain broke through whatever magic thing Cora had pulled. His eye rolled in her direction and he looked confused for a heart wrenching moment before a wave of violet energy resurged itself through the whites of his eyes. Anton let out a snarl of renewed rage and sprang to his feet, the harpoon gun dangling like a morbid pendulum.
Emma started backpedalling the moment Anton's eyes changed, and by the time the earth shook with Anton's lumbering steps, she was halfway across the docks in an all-out sprint. Have to make him feel pain, she repeated the phrase in her head, trying to come up with a way to do so that wouldn't be permanent.
The harpoon gun – rope and weapon trailing behind – sailed over her head like the world's most dangerous kite. The ruined brick of metal dug into the ground in front of her with the weapon bouncing off it with a cheerful tink. Emma cursed, skidding enough so only her good side clipped the weapon. Emma kept her feet and forced herself to keep moving, shelving the knowledge that she would be one gigantic bruise to deal with later.
The screeching of overtaxed tires riding an aggressive turn sounded from the opposite end of the wharf, and Emma spotted David's truck racing down the road straight at the giant. She let out a relieved laugh, never having been so happy to see the beat-up old diesel drinker. Mary-Margaret leaned out of the passenger-side window, raising a knocked bow, and Emma wondered if getting smacked by a giant had caused more damage than she thought, but a shake of her head did not change the sight in front of her.
Anton had either ignored or did not hear the truck, so when the arrow hit him square between the shoulders, he hollered in a combination of shock and pain, spinning to meet the new threat. Emma took the opportunity to rest, hands on her knees, and drank in breaths like a woman dying of thirst.
Hate running. Absolutely hate running, she thought, fighting to get her composure back.
"How could there be more of you!?" A strained whine lined the giant's words. He took off at a charge toward the oncoming vehicle, reaching down to grab the discarded mast as he passed it. David turned the truck into a rough, sliding stop, but Emma judged that the giant was far too close for the vehicle to move again before Anton was on top of them.
Her heart leapt into her chest at the thought, but both David and Mary Margaret scrambled out of the truck as Anton swung the mast down into the truck, crushing it as if it was made of aluminum foil. Anton raised the weapon and slammed it down again and again and again in a savage display in disregarding the sanctity of personal property. The pair of fairy-land heroes slipped around the giant as he did so, running straight for her.
She jogged to meet them, keeping one eye on the magical thirty-foot tall being throwing a tantrum that could put a toddler to shame.
"Emma." Mary Margaret embraced her, but let go the instant Emma hissed in pain and transitioned straight into mother hen mode.
"I'm alright," she said. She shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable under their combined concern. "Tell me we have a plan?"
"We did," David said, looking over his shoulder toward the scrap metal that used to be his truck. "It kind of got crushed." A melancholic frown crossed his face, and Mary Margaret patted his arm in an absent, instinctive gesture of comfort.
"We can improvise," the schoolteacher said. She grinned at David, wicked with a taunting flare. "Think we can outrun a giant?"
David let out a sharp laugh, matching her smile. "I guess we're going to find out."
On some level, Emma realized, the duo were enjoying this and wondered if insanity ran in the family.
"JAMES!" The giant's roaring yell shook the ground as much as his steps, and both David and Mary Margaret's faces dropped into masks of pure determination, their attention turning back on Anton. He had stopped beating on the heap of twisted scrap and turned on the trio with his chest heaving. "I don't care how many visions you send at me, I will end you! Show me which one of you is real and I will make it quick. A mercy you denied my family!"
"Charming?" Mary Margaret conveyed something in that one word that David understood, but went over Emma's head.
"I don't know," her deputy said. The grip he held on his sword turned his knuckles bone white. David stared down the giant, gaze unwavering. "His ghosts have hunted me for years, why should it stop in another realm?"
"Can one of you please explain to me what's going on? Who the hell is James?"
"My brother." Emma blinked, but before David could elaborate on that detailed answer or she could process the fact that she had an uncle, the man stepped forward and spoke to the would-be murderer, the picture of calm composure.
"James is dead!" Anton's lip twisted into a silent snarl. "He was killed many years ago." David sighed. "I'm his twin brother, David!" The story sounded farfetched to Emma's ears, but she was predisposed to trust the man.
"Liar! This is more human treachery!" Anton lurched forward in motion once again. Mary Margaret knocked and loosed three arrows in rapid succession, each hitting her target in the meat of his thigh.
Other than a hiss of pain that might have been fitting on a pterodactyl, the giant did not react or slow his pace.
"Now we move," Emma suggested, aching legs already pumping. The pair flanked her and kept pace just one step behind.
"We have to get him over to the fairies," Mary Margaret said, shouldering her bow. Her pale cheeks were flushed with color.
"We can't take him through the town." Emma dismissed the idea without question. "Can you get them here?"
David shook his head. "They had to set up between Franklin and Main, outside Town Hall."
"The same town hall that's right by the school?" Emma wished she had the breath left to shout. David grimaced but didn't answer. The mangled remains of the harpoon gun loomed ahead and Emma knew were running out of ground. Emma cursed under her breath. "Do you have your gun, David?"
"Ah…no."
"Grabbed your sword but not your gun?"
"Old habits." Mary Margaret supplied the excuse for her husband. Emma opened her mouth to let off a sarcastic retort, but the sight of a soaking wet Regina crouching down just behind the twisted boulder of metal, her normally impeccable appearance devolved into a mess of ruined makeup, wild hair, and clinging clothes. The fire of determined focus in her eyes remained as the former mayor stared around the corner of her cover straight at Anton, one hand held out toward an equally drenched Ruby, signaling the woman to stay in place.
Her deputy held the blood covered harpoon at the ready, every one of her muscles held tense and a feral, anticipatory grin displaying her pearly whites to the world.
Emma registered everything in the split second it took to run past them, and she longed to put a stop to their plan, but she was fresh out of alternatives.
"Now, Miss Lucas!" Regina ordered, and Emma spun to a stop, breath held. David and Mary Margaret did the same. Ruby leapt just as Anton passed by, using the weapon's mount for leverage, and lunged with all her weight to bury the harpoon half to the hilt in the side of Anton's calf.
The guttural cry of the scared and injured escaped Anton's throat as he collapsed first to his knees, then to his chest. A meaty hand reached back and pawed toward his calf in a panic. "What did you do, what did you do!?" Moments ago Emma would not have believed the high pitched, hoarse tone could come out of the giant's mouth. Her stomach twisted.
She hated this situation.
Swallowing bile, Emma drew her empty gun and aimed it at the ground in front of Anton. She put on her game face and tried to seem as intimidating as she could. Ruby and Regina circled behind her to stand next to David and Mary Margaret, but Emma did not dare spare them a glance.
"Anton, stop moving!" She made her voice calm and demanding. His eyes snapped to her and Emma let out a shaky breath. The purple glow was gone, replaced by a haze of pained confusion. She holstered the weapon, not seeing the need to bluff if the giant was once more in his right mind.
"Emma? What happened, where is that bastard?" His hand found the harpoon and he yanked, crying out in pain, eyes screwing shut. Her hard mask cracked and she cried out.
"Don't! We'll get that taken care of." She took a hesitant step forward with a gentle smile. Anton stopped moving, but his hand didn't leave the metal embedded in his leg.
"You have to be careful. He has to be nearby, and he's dangerous!" He was looking around wildly, looking but not seeing. Emma took another step closer to the downed giant, arms held up, placating.
"Easy big fella, we don't have to worry about him." She moved another step closer and Anton's breathing slowed some, calming down. "Can you…shrink?" The man nodded.
"Yes. The witch's trinket can do it." He moved his free hand into his robes. "I think I—" He froze, face falling as he spotted something over Emma's shoulder. "You liar!" Anton's gaze snapped back to Emma. "You're with both James and the Evil Queen!" Emma's blood chilled and the malevolent energy sparked in Anton's eyes again.
For fuck's sake.
She pulled her gun to bear again, hoping he bought her threat. "Anton," She focused her entire gaze on the giant's. "There is no James here. I don't know what you are seeing, but you have to stay down while we try and help—"
"Emma!" Four panicked shouts cut her off. Emma whipped her head behind her, finding Regina holding both hands out in front of her with her eyes wide in fear, both David and Mary Margaret lunging toward her while Ruby pointed with a look of abject terror. With a spark of anxious fear, she looked back to Anton to realize he was stabbing the harpoon, now covered in blood and chunky bits of giant, right at her heart for a sweeping blow.
In the split second it took to take it all in, Emma realized she could not move in time.
A fear, primal, instinctive, and mind-numbing gripped Emma's heart, blanking her thoughts. She could hear the thundering of her own pulse pounding in her ears, and her body tensed for the impact.
The harpoon closed the last inches to her chest, and the world dissolved into a flash of violet light, the thunderous crack of displaced air, and the unnerving sensation of weightlessness.
Seconds later, Emma saw only the dreary gray clouds looming over Storybrooke and took a series of shuddering breaths, realizing she was still alive. A laugh of pure and complete relief bubbled out of her throat.
And morphed into a strangled cry as the pain set in.
Her entire left side bloomed in a white hot river of agony, and it was all Emma could do to not lose herself into it. Blinking back tears, she forced herself to look at the injury. Thankful as she was that a harpoon was not embedded into her chest, the sight of her left arm laying at an impossible angle and not responding to mental commands filled her with a morbid combination of curiosity and dread. The renewed stab of pain she felt on every breath did not bode well for her ribs, either.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret's hysterical cry came from behind, and Emma arced her neck to try and see, regretting the motion immediately as her injured side screamed in protest. She went limp and bit back a vocal cry as two brunettes came into her field of vision. Ruby and Mary Margaret stared at her with a mix of disbelief, relief, and worry. "Oh gods…"
Emma tried to shelve the pain, finding little success. "David? Regina?" The names came out gruff and terse, her breaths coming hard and quick through her nose.
"Come get me you bastard!" Emma turned her head to see David slice at Anton's knees as the giant lumbered to his feet. The man did not slow down at the blow and kept moving at an all out sprint toward the town proper. With yet another war cry, Anton lurched to his feet and went after him with a limping gait.
Shit, shit, shit. Emma tried to sit up again, but both her injury and Mary Margaret's firm hand on her good shoulder kept her in place. She let out a hiss of frustration.
"We have to help."
"David knows where to go, and the fairies will take care of the rest." Mary Margaret lifted the corner of Emma's leather jacket and pulled down the corner of her shirt. The way the woman's face paled unsettled Emma far more than the pain. She arced her neck, but could only see purple.
"That's probably not good," Ruby said, voice strained. The newest deputy shuffled from foot to foot, hands flexing.
"I would say not." The two women above her turned toward Regina's voice. Matching, expressions of conflicting emotions crossed their faces and, for a moment, the pair appeared as sisters.
"Regina…" Mary Margaret trailed off, mouth chewing on unspoken words
"Save it." Regina barked out the words. She came into Emma's field of vision, glaring and arms crossed. "Foolish idiot." She accused without a hint of sympathy.
Emma could not disagree, but saved the self-deprecation for later. "Yup." She coughed, and the fresh wave of pain turned it into a sound Emma refused to acknowledge as a whimper. "Can you take care of this?"
Regina let out a huff of irritation. "Only if I wanted to kill us both. It would take too much energy for a skilled user, and I've never studied healing magic." Emma grimaced, trying to move again, but Mary Margaret's hand held her down. Emma did not bother to hide her frustration. It was getting harder to focus.
"Something? To get me through. Savior. Have to help." Regina stared at her, hard. She frowned.
"Pin her arm against her chest, Snow."
"What?" The woman's voice raised several octaves. "We need to wait for an ambulance or, or get her to Doctor Whale ourselves."
"I'll get him here," Ruby said, fishing in her pocket for her phone. Emma grit her teeth. They were wasting time.
"Just do it Mary Margaret." Her voice sounded strangled. "Please." Emma locked gazes with the woman that would have been her mother and tried to stare her down. After several excruciating seconds, Mary Margaret bowed her head. Emma closed her eyes, relieved, and braced herself.
She could not stop the scream that tore from her throat.
The fire in her nerves lasted only a few seconds before it was replaced by a cold nothingness, but Emma kept her eyes screwed shut for long moments afterward, trying to regain her composure and ignore the tracks of wetness that slipped down her cheeks.
With a long breath, she blinked her eyes open, feeling oddly empty in the absence of the pain. She sat up, looking at her injured arm with a morbid curiosity. It crossed over her stomach, bent at the elbow, with an unseen force holding it in place as if it were in a sling. Unable to help herself, she poked her injured shoulder right in the center of a forming bruise, and felt nothing.
"Huh," she said, using her good arm to get to her feet. She took a tentative deep breath and, though stuttered, there was no pain. She nodded, mentally prepping herself. "Okay, let's get after them." Three near-identical looks of disbelief met her statement, though Regina's held a touch more anger than the other two.
"Are you concussed, Swan?" She stepped closer, studying Emma's eyes. Emma took a step back, unnerved under the intense gaze. "I only took away the pain, not the damage. The only thing rushing off into battle will do is get you hurt worse. Or killed." The silence from Ruby and Mary Margaret was less than encouraging.
Emma heard the logic in Regina's words, but pushed that aside. "Doesn't matter." She took a chance and moved to push through Regina, leading with her injured shoulder. The woman scrambled out of her way, startled. Emma took a couple quick, jogging steps to test herself and threw her best no-nonsense look over her shoulder. "Let's go."
Running with one arm pinned against her stomach proved more difficult than Emma anticipated, but she still managed a decent clip. The other three women kept pace behind her – holding back, Emma knew – and she could feel their eyes drilling holes in the back of her skull every step of the trek toward the center of town.
When they rounded off the corner of Franklin to the side street that split it from Main between the Town Hall and the school, Emma skidded to a halt. Raggedy breaths took their toll on her endurance, but the sight before her would have stopped her in her tracks had she been at one hundred percent.
The road had been built wider than most others in town to accommodate the consistently high level of traffic that came with the two centers of community activity. Anton stood in the dead center of the street, mouth open in a silent scream as he beat his mighty fists against a barrier she could not see. Chromatic rings of light rippled through the air with each blow.
In a wide circle around the giant, the ground glowed a brilliant white, energy crackling up from the pavement in a supernatural campfire. A nun stood at each of the cardinal points around the magic circle with Mother Superior standing closest to Emma at the northernmost point.
She spotted David laying on the ground off to the side, chest heaving with each breath and laughing at something Leroy was saying as the former drunk loomed over him. Nova, Archie, and the other dwarves stood by him as well, forming a rough arc around the hero of the day; though their attention was split between the prince and the display of energy.
Emma leaned against the nearest object – the flagpole outside Storybrooke Elementary – and felt exhausted in every sense of the word. She watched Anton fall to his knees within the circle, the weight of the crash cracking the pavement beneath the giant. The ground did not shake. Emma slid down the pole until she sat on the ground, determination and drive leaving her.
A hand rested on her shoulder and Mary Margaret offered her a sympathetic smile. Ruby stood just behind her, enthralled by the nuns' display of magic, and Regina stared toward the school with a melancholic gaze that matched Emma's newfound mood. She followed the woman's line of site to the school's top floor, where Emma spotted a gaggle of kids pressed up against each window, watching the events with the wide-eyed amazement of youth.
She spotted Henry peering out of the one closest to the action, his curious eyes wide and jaw hung open in surprised wonder. Emma could not help the smile that tugged at her lips.
"Kid's enjoying the show." Emma's brow furrowed as her words came out slurred. Looking back toward the magical trap. Anton started shrinking down, his hands on his head, still bellowing an unheard scream.
Looked like the fairies and David had the situation well at hand.
"Yes he is…" Regina said with a sigh. Emma's eyes started to drift closed, and she felt no need to fight them. They did not need her.
"Emma? Emma!?" Emma did not know who shouted her name, but decided it did not matter as the darkness claimed her.
E/N: So that turned out to be one really long scene, but Anton is captured! David and the fairies did the final trapping - having had time to come up with a plan while Emma and the rest played Yakety Sax with the giant. One important thing I hoped I presented through the chapter was that Emma is completely, utterly, out of her depth with this magic thing. She's flying by the seat of her pants trying to come up with solutions to these problems, and has come up short in her own view. This is going to be a major motivator for her in the times to come. That's not to say she's useless, of course, but our Savior needs to get used to playing by a completely new set of rules, and she keeps getting blindsided.
She was able to cope while trapped in fairy tale land, but returning home was supposed to be the end of it, you see.
But things never go the way we plan, do they?
So, tell me what you think! Good, bad, boring, awesome? Next chapter will be a bit special as a sort of 'end of intro arc' roundup. Multiple points of view, shorter scenes. Just to catch up on where the major players stand. We'll get inside the minds of Henry, David, Snow, Regina, Emma, and Rumple. Maybe more if the chapter calls for it. Until then, happy reading!