Regina appeared in the apartment through a haze of lavender smoke pulling a bewildered, frothy-mouthed Emma behind her. Her determined strides had her across the apartment and in front of the weeping Mary Margaret in mere seconds. At the sight of her former stepmother the inconsolable woman threw herself into Regina's arms.
"He's gone, he's gone," Mary Margaret wailed.
"I know this is hard for you Mary Margaret, but right now we need you to keep a level head if we're going to find Baby Neal. Crying won't get us any closer to the truth," Regina soothed.
"What! Baby Neal is missing," Emma cried.
"Yes, and Henry too," Regina supplied.
"What!" Emma, exclaimed spitting toothpaste foam every which way.
"Miss. Swan, please rinse your mouth. You look positively feral." Regina sighed, but continued her story. "I'm sure Henry has been taken as well. He could barely stand to leave our side the night before. He wasn't there this morning, he left no note and his phone was still on the charger in his room."
Emma spit water out her mouth and wiped the excess moisture with her sleeve. She looked up willing herself not to cry. It was all happening again, she thought. Someone had taken her child again and now, her brother too. As hard as she tried, she felt the warm pressure of tears forming, pooling and then begin their slow descent down her cheeks.
"Pull it together Miss. Swan, I can't handle two simpering hens! I need you to go get dressed. We're going to see the fairies," Regina barked. Emma scrambled upstairs, swiftly pulling her tank over her head. Moments later banging could be heard above, as the blonde began to prepare.
"Snow, where's David?"
"He went to see Belle, to check if Rumple returned. You were missing for three days; if the same people took Rumple and the fairies it would mean they would be back today."
Regina nodded. "Call David, tell him we will meet at the convent. Go get dressed; we are going to see Blue."
Regina materialized on the steps of the convent with a queasy and disoriented Mary Margaret. Emma, who was now used to being pushed, tugged, and unwittingly transported via magic was nonplussed. David stood outside on the steps and immediately bound to his wife's side as they made their way into the church. "Belle is in chapel with Blue; Gold is still missing. Regina, I don't get it," Dave said. "It was your belief that only people with magic are being taken. Why would they take Henry?"
"Because he has magic," she replied. "His magic is not like mine or Emma's, it's latent. Much like Mary Margaret's."
"Mary Margaret has magic," he asked incredulously.
"Of course she does, unless you were born with the ability to summon and speak to birds and small woodland creatures; then I could be wrong." Regina deadpanned. "Latent magic resides in the heart. While Mary Margaret's magic is based on communication, Henry's magic is about belief and hope. Not only will his heart always guide him to the right outcome, but he can influence the outcome he desires as well. Heart magic is the most basic form in which magic can exist within us. It even exists in this realm to a certain degree."
"It does?"
"Yes, I believe they are called prodigies."
"How can you be a prodigy in belief," Emma asked, scrunching her face in disbelief.
"Oh, Miss Swan, you have no idea. Belief is the rarest form of heart magic, and Henry being Truest Believer makes him incredibly powerful, more so if he finds a cohort."
"What, like a wife?"
"Miss Swan, if we had time to discuss the particulars, we would, but time is of the essence. We need to find Henry and your brother." Regina strode ahead of the group into the chapel.
Blue and Belle stood closely together. Their quiet murmuring wafted through the silence of the room. They spoke with severe frowns etching their faces. Belle shook her head fervently, she wiped her now tear filled eyes, her eyes blazed as she bored into Blue and spoke. Whatever her statement lacked in volume, it made up for in intensity, for the Blue Fairy's reaction was to step back in shock. Belle ceased her conversation with Blue when the anxious family entered the chapel.
"Emma, Regina," Belle greeted them, "David said you had returned."
Regina bypassed the greeting with curt nod which hadn't particularly acknowledged either of the women. "Belle, I'm sorry to hear about the Imp, but more pressing matters have arisen. The Dark One is in no danger of dying, but our children are. Henry and Neal have been taken,"
"Oh dear this is very distressing," said a shocked Blue Fairy. She paused for a moment staring at Regina and then looked at Emma strangely, "You must come with me I have something to show you."
Blue led the group out of the chapel into to the rectory where the fairies worked during the day. They walked through a large room where in the center was a large table. Cubicle with fairies typing away lined the edge of the room. On the table where large piles of pixie dust seven fairies sat around the table weighing and packaging the dust into rations. They then placed the bags into a box which was then taken to one of the cubicles. In the small area another set fairies cataloged and tagged each packet. After the box was finished someone would remove the box from the room.
"I've never seen this much pixie dust," Mary Margaret breathed in wonder.
Emma leaned over to Regina and whispered, "If they ever run out of pixie dust, they would make great drug lords."
"I'm sure they're keeping that on the back burner, just in case," Regina replied.
The group moved through the office into another area. From what she could see, Emma surmised this was the living area for the fairies. Mary Margaret looked at everything in awe. One would think she was on a tour of Buckingham Palace, or even better Graceland, Emma thought. Then she saw it again, Blue was staring at her and Regina again. When she noticed Emma was watching she quickly looked away.
"Do I have something on my face?" She asked Regina.
"Hmm," was the distracted answer she received. Apparently Regina was just as enthralled by the living situation of the fairies as her mother. "Regina," she hissed under her breath. "The Blue Fairy keeps staring at us."
"Perhaps it's because mortals are rarely allowed to see where fairies live. We are probably the first to see something like this in centuries."
"What a dormitory," Emma deadpanned, "Plenty of humans have seen a dorm. I've seen one or two myself, back in the day." She waggled her eyebrows for emphasis
"I don't know how I will live with the disappointment of not hearing you expound on your past dalliances with frat boys, Miss Swan. However, if you shut up, paid attention and extended your magic beyond the tip of your nose, you would realize how special this is," Regina scoffed, and shouldered past the confused blonde. Emma slowed, and concentrated on her surroundings. Suddenly the walls began to shift and melt away; she was no longer in a hallway with wood paneled walls. She was in a cavernous anteroom gleaming iridescent walls. The walls held shimmering veins that sparkled and shimmered, reflecting and refracting light throughout the room. Her forward progress had come to a halt as she now tried to view everything she had ignored only moments ago.
"Wow, it's like we're in butterfly wings with a million prisms. Hey Regina…Regina?" The blonde then realized she was standing alone. The wall shimmered and former queen materialized through the structure. She marched over grabbing Emma by the hand and pulled her forward.
"Why do you keep tugging me everywhere?"
"Because you don't seem to understand time is of the essence! You don't seem to understand we can't go off halfcocked and hope to bumble into finding our child. Whatever is going on, whoever is behind it, this person or whatever has taken the Dark One. The Dark One," Regina slowly enunciated each word as if she were speaking to someone of lesser intelligence. "That alone should have us worried. Are you understanding now? This isn't a field trip to discover where the fairies live. This is a small but necessary pit stop before I find who took our family and destroy them," she seethed. "And what I really need right now is for you to be on the same page." As Regina tugged them through the wall the Blue Fairy stood on the opposite side waiting. She eyed both women curiously. Her eyes traveled to their intertwined hands and she frowned. Regina not one to show she was uncomfortable under the scrutiny, pulled Emma past the fairy. As she pulled the compliant blonde past Blue, the fairy finally realized what had her so unsettled seeing the Savior and the Evil Queen together.
"Oh my," she breathed, Queen Snow would need to know.