Sorry, cliffhangers mean change of setting. Back to Storybrooke we go!

Present Time

Storybrooke, Maine

So far they did not know why Regina had invited them or why she had asked them to sit down by the table in her library, but the waiting period caused the discussion he and Mary Margaret were now having to be inevitable.

"Emma, will you please tell your mother that we're not going to name your brother Leopold?" David said once his daughter sat down by the table, followed by Hook, who was definitely not in his usual, carefree mood this evening. Emma's eyes widened in surprise and she opened her mouth to answer, but Mary Margaret interrupted her.

"Why not? It was my father's name!"

"People will make fun of him", David argued.

"My father was a king", his wife sharply answered.

"Which was why nobody made fun of him."

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes at him.

"Okay", she sighed, "what about Eva, after my mother?"

"I don't know how that'll work with a boy", David replied. In the corner of his eye he saw Emma's amused smirk and Hook squirming on the chair, wishing he was someplace else.

"It might not be a boy", Mary Margaret pointed out, cocking her eyebrow at him. David could not help but smile at her determination to name their second child after one of her parents; it was definitely a trait he loved about her. Scratch that; he loved all of her and he always would.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Regina entered through the door, balancing a tray with a silver teapot on her left arm.

"I was making this special tea", she continued and leaned forward, pouring the tea in the already prepared cups standing on the table. David immediately reached for the one in front of him and brought it up to sniff the liquid.

"No, don't drink it!" Regina yelled, almost causing him to drop the cup. He stared up at her in surprise while lowering the object and she blushed, calming herself while pouring the liquid in the remaining cups.

"It's a deadly poison for summoning the dark vortex", the Mayor continued. He put the cup back on the table with a sigh.

"I prefer Earl Grey", he remarked.

"The dark what?" Emma asked, looking at the cups in front of them.

"Zelena came by this morning", Regina responded, not looking at anyone among the gathered. Everyone was, however, looking at her. She placed the teapot and the tray on another table, closed the door again and sat down with a sigh.

"While the Dark One was stealing my heart", she continued, "she was here gloating."

They all already knew that the Witch had stolen Regina's heart; it was the first thing she had told them when asking them to come by.

"She said that my weakness was that I don't know enough about her past, so I've decided to summon someone who does."

Regina flashed a smile at them, but David was sure he was not the only one who saw the insecurity shining in her eyes. She then folded her hands on the table, looked at them intently for a while, drew a deep breath and finally looked up at them again.

"We have to talk to my mother", she finished. David heard Mary Margaret inhale sharply to his left and knew exactly what was going on in his wife's mind. After all, she had been the one to kill the woman in question. Her spirit would not be so forgiving of that.

"I'm sure I've seen this somewhere before", Rachel said, walking around the cowhide on the floor of the pawnshop another time, staring at the ink and the burn marks left from their wands.

"You're not alone in that", Filipi remarked. "This is probably the most familiar thing we've found so far."

Rachel knelt down and ran her fingers along the inked symbol of a rearing horse, which was right next to the burn mark caused by her own wand.

"Whatever we used it for in the past it was powerful magic", Maryse said above her head. "Belle said so; she'd sensed it, somehow."

"It feels strange", Chris agreed, "like it's colder than it should be. The ink, I mean."

"Why the burn marks, though?" Miranda asked. "Why did our wands cause that whenever they were placed there before? They did not cause something like this now, did they?"

"We must have done something different the last time", Ella agreed, "but what?"

Rachel pursed her lips, her fingers still touching the horse.

"We matched them individually", she realized. "Last time we must all have placed our wands there at the same time. Now some did not even place them down; they just held them next to the burn mark and identified the pattern."

"How did you ever come up with that answer?" Toby asked, frowning.

"I don't know", Rachel responded. "It just... appeared."

"Like the hide itself", Catriona said. "Should we try it? Place our wands on our burn marks at the same time and see what happens?"

"Not in here", Maryse responded, her voice sharp.

"Agreed", Indira said. "If this thing contains powerful magic and we are somehow able to unleash it by placing our wands on it we don't want to be indoors."

"But if we go outside we might draw the attention of Zelena", Clarissa remarked.

"For some reason", Toby said, "I think we won't."

Everyone blinked at him in surprise, before Rowan, Filipi, Chris and Arianne helped carry the heavy hide out of the shop. They needed to find a good, safe place to try their theory, and fast. Rachel frowned at her own thoughts. Why fast? What was the hurry?

"It's a fairly simple ritual", Regina explained, "but not often performed."

She had by now placed a mahogany pole in the centre of the circle of teacups and, on top of this pole, was a very familiar candle. David had felt uneasy the moment she brought it out; the black and white candle which had cursed Cora's heart and caused her death when the object was inserted back into her chest. A curse caused by his wife.

"If it's easy to talk to the dead, why not do it more?" Emma asked, frowning.

"Well, because to do it you need the murder weapon", Regina answered, her gaze flickering over the candle before rising up to look at Mary Margaret on to opposite side of the table, "and the murderer."

Mary Margaret inhaled sharply again and David reached over to hold her hand. She squeezed it in comfort while Regina lit the two ends of the candle, allowing the wax to drip down in containers below.

"What do we need to do?" Emma asked.

"Focus on Cora", Regina said and placed her hands, palms up, on the table before closing her eyes. David met Emma's gaze briefly before he reached over and took Regina's left hand. Emma took her right, then linked herself with Hook by touching his left arm above his hook. The pirate seemed to have regained some sense of humour in this dire situation.

"Welcoming thoughts?" he joked.

"Whatever you got", Regina responded, while Hook took Mary Margaret's free hand in his uninjured one, completing the circle. David closed his eyes, guessing that this was something they all also needed to do.

"Is it..." he heard Emma begin. Regina instantly hushed her. The candle burned and hissed and, suddenly, it was as if a cold breeze had found its way into the room, despite the closed door and windows. David heard how the fire in the fireplace behind him went out with a sharp hiss before a low, screeching sound caused him to open his eyes. They were bathing in a ghostly, blue light caused by a spiralling vortex above their heads.

"We did it", Mary Margaret gasped to his left. He could not look away from the object above his head, only squeeze his wife's hand in support and comfort. She was terrified and he knew it.

"Cora?" Regina called to his right. "Mother, can you hear us? Cora, give us a sign!"

He had trouble breathing regularly and he felt his heart beat as if it threatened to break out of the ribcage.

"Do not ignore me now, mother", Regina ordered. He swallowed, hard, and tried to regain control of his breathing.

Only he could not. He could not breathe. His breath came in short gasps and he got less and less oxygen down into his lungs, yet he could not act and alert the others of his situation.

He was trapped.

"It's impossible for all of us to put the wands down at exactly the same moment", Toby remarked as they spread the cowhide in the small clearing they had found in the forest. Jade and Tessa believed they were far enough away from Robin Hood's camp to not disturb the Merry Men and they should also be able to avoid being detected by someone from town. Now they were all standing around it, close to their individual symbols.

"Maybe it's enough if they're all on it at the same time", Clarissaa suggested. "I'll go first, if you want."

The others nodded and she slowly knelt, placing her wand on the burn mark next to the symbol of a swan. They then went clockwise around the star's points, causing Rachel to be the fourth to place her wand down. She then watched as the others continued in the same manner, ending with Arianne. Kneeling next to her symbol of an apple she looked up at the rest of them. So far nothing had happened.

"Everyone ready in case something happens?" she asked. The others nodded and Rachel felt her teeth dig into her cheek, a habit of hers when she was focused. She then watched as Arianne carefully placed her wand on top of her burn mark and stepped back.

Nothing happened. Not the slightest indication of magic occurred.

"Well, that's... disappointing", Rowan said.

"Maybe we did something wrong", Tessa said.

"Or maybe it doesn't work in this world", Catriona sighed. "Maybe..."

Rachel stopped listening, frowning at her own wand in front of her. It was trembling slightly and when she raised her gaze she noticed that the others had started to do the same.

"Wait", she ordered, silencing the others. "Look."

The trembling increased so that a loud rattling was heard while white light seemed to pulsate along the shafts of the wands, tracing the outlines of everyone's individual pattern. The light seemed to seep out into the hide, into the burn marks, intensifying them, and then spreading to the star. The ink started to glow with a bright, blue light, spreading to all fifteen points and then seeping into the individual symbols.

And that was when Rachel felt it; she could not breathe. Her hand came up to her throat, tracing the bruises and clawing at whatever it was that caused this feeling. To her right Catriona seemed to notice what was going on and alerted the others, but to their surprised none of them could move. Their feet were stuck to the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" Wolfgang yelled as the light grew upwards, towards the sky, and shot out tendrils towards them. The tendrils shooting out towards Rachel did not reach her. She stared at them as they tried to get to her as she struggled with breathing, but they came up short, as if touching a solid wall. The connection is blocked, a voice inside her head whispered. Panic rose inside of her. What connection? Why could she not breathe?

An image flashed through her head of someone in the same situation, someone she knew very well. His blue eyes were wide with terror as he was locked in the same position, unable to breathe, unable to alert anyone of what was happening.

"David", she tried to say, but her voice broke. The cold silver chain around her wrist drew her attention and she instinctively removed it, tossing it on the ground. They shared a connection, she knew that, and she had blocked it with fear. Now she had to remove that blockade.

David, she thought, closing her eyes. David. David. Divad.

Please tell me things are alright...

(I know, I know; my story, I shouldn't freak out, but re-reading it makes me do that anyway)