Chapter 5: The Queen of Hearts Returns
London
Alice woke up slowly. Earlier that day, she, her husband Cyrus, her infant daughter Sophia, and her brother-in-law Taj came to London to start their search for Alice's lost sister Victoria. Taj was watching Sophia in the hotel room while Alice and Cyrus took a stroll around the city to get accustomed to it. When they came near Big Ben, a black van pulled up to them. Then, two men jumped out. One man fought Cyrus while the other drugged Alice and brought her unconscious body into the van. By the time Cyrus got back on his feet, the van had driven away. The last thing Alice remembered before blacking out was one of the men saying "Cora sends her regards." Alice was especially fearful about that. Cora, the Queen of Hearts, had been killed by Snow White, resurrected by Zelena, and then killed again by Rumplestiltskin. Alice didn't expect to hear Cora's name again, especially in London, where there was no magic. Alice woke up and inspected her surroundings. She was laying on a bench inside a small white room. The bench was laying against the back wall. Three of the walls were white. The wall opposite of Alice was not a wall at all. Instead it was. A series of metal bars. Alice knew where she was. She was in a prison cell. Then, she noticed a woman standing on the other side of the bars. As Alice gained more consciousness, she saw that this woman was Cora. The former Queen of Hearts was not wearing her royal dress or her black cloak. Instead, she wore a form fitting business woman's suit and her hair was down.
"Hello Alice." Cora said. "I bet you're surprised to see me. I know I was surprised to see you here in London."
"How are you alive?" Alice asked. "Rumplestiltskin said he killed you."
"Clearly he didn't." Cora said. "He just thinks he did. Women in my family are powerful. With the right dark magic they can even escape death. Zelena did it. I killed her myself, but she transformed her body into magic mist and flew off. Now she's masquerading around Storybrooke as Cruella de Vil. The Dark One turned my body to dust back in Wonderland. Once he left, all I had to do was reanimate myself."
"Why did you come to London?" Alice said. "Where are we?"
"I used magic to go back to Storybrooke." Cora said. "Then I snuck past the town line when no one was looking before the Snow Queen cast her spell of shattered sight."
"How did you get passed the ice wall?" Alice asked.
"Elsa put up that wall." Cora said. "I'm more powerful than her. I was able to break a hole in the wall large enough to escape through."
"Then what?" Alice asked. "How did you get here?"
"I was taken by the same men who took you. They were outside Storbrooke. They saw me appear out of nowhere and brought me back to their headquarters in London. We're there now." Cora said.
"What men took you?" Alice was said. "What headquarters?"
"The United Nations knows that there have been strange, unexplainable occurrences in this world." Cora said. "They created an organization to investigate those strange occurrences called the United Nations Secret Service (UNSS). They investigated the Dragon in Hong Kong before Pan's henchman killed him. They questioned me and I did what I normally do. I lied. I twisted their words. I made them fear me. I told them I could get them what they want. I told them I could get them in Storybrooke. Now, I'm head of the food chain."
"You connived your way to power without magic?" Alice asked. "I didn't think you were capable of doing anything without magic."
"I don't need magic here." Cora said. "This is the perfect way to exact my revenge on everyone in Storybrooke. UNSS has soldiers, weapons, tanks, planes and missiles. All I have to do is open Storybrooke to them and they'll wipe out everything there."
"Why kidnap me and tell me all this?" Alice said.
"You've foiled my plans many times before." Cora said. "I couldn't risk you doing it again. I saw that you were here and I thought you might be Victoria. So I sent my men to capture you."
"You know Victoria?" Alice asked. "I remember now. The Snow Queen brought Victoria to this world. She said that you were the one who abducted her all those years ago and that you were the one keeping her prisoner in Wonderland."
"True." Cora said. "I was trying to use her to get to you. It didn't work. You never came looking for her. I made sure she knew that too."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked.
"I told her about how you and your family abandoned her and forgot about her. If you do see Victoria again, you'll find that she's grown vengeful." Cora said.
"That's not true." Alice said. "We never forgot about her."
"That's not what I told her." Cora said. "I was planning on using her as part of my revenge, but then Rumplestiltskin came and ruined everything. I'm sorry to say you've come all this way for nothing. Your sister is in Storybrooke."
"I used the magic globe and it said she was here." Alice said.
"At the time she was in Victorian London getting revenge on your father, Sara, and Millie." Cora said. "Now she's back in Storybrooke looking for you and your family to do the same."
"No." Alice said. She couldn't imagine what Victoria would've possibly done to her father.
"It's true." Cora said. "Now you're going to stay here in the basement, out of the way, while I finalize my Storybrooke invasion plan."
As Alice started to cry in her prison cell, Jafar and Ursula were arriving in the magic underwater kingdom to face her father, the legendary god of the seas, Poseidon.