Double Trouble 54

Chapter 54 'Unbroken'

Mills vault, Storybrooke Memorial Grounds

"I think it's locked," said Em. She pulled on the handle of the double doors that barred unwanted entry to the crypt.

Ri had heard from Regina that her parents were buried there, her father, ever since Storybrooke had existed, and her mother, more recently. Her older self had not wanted to elaborate on the facts surrounding their deaths nor her personal feelings about them but Ri had been both saddened by her parents' inevitable mortality and curious to see the vault for herself.

"Let me try," suggested Ri. She took over testing the lock and after a few attempts it obeyed her will. The little puff of yellow smoke dissipated and then she pushed the door open a couple inches.

"How'd you do that," Em smiled appreciatively. "Magic?"

"I'm not sure, it may be some form of blood magic. I've heard of such things as blood locks, designed to keep intruders at bay. They are infallible and not vulnerable to tricks or pretenses. Their only flaw is the assumption that the people you are trying to keep out are not family relations. Sometimes the danger is already on the inside of one's house."

"Hm," Em joked. "Sounds like one of those things that makes me glad I don't have family. Or a house."

Ri noticed Em's teeth chattering and when she took her hand she felt that it was cold. Guilt nagged at her and she now regretted dragging her girlfriend out here in the chilly weather, late at night. Maybe she should have come alone.

"You're freezing, Em. We'll go straight home after this and run you a hot bath before bed ok."

"Deal. Provided you get in with me."

Em used her iPhone's flashlight app to shed light inside and the girls peeked through the doorway. There were some candles burning in the alcoves of the inner walls casting a gloomy flicker over them in the shadows.

The teenagers entered the dusty crypt. They were overcome by the oppressive smell of musty age and the creep factor of being near death. The stone walls and floor meant it was just as cold inside as out. It seemed a smaller room with the both of them in there because most of the space was taken up by a large stone sarcophagus in the centre of the room.

Em's attention was drawn to various curiosities and artefacts that were stored in the alcoves. Some were books or bottles of unknown content. Others were recognisable but were creepy-as-hell given the context. Like the dried crocodile foot, the hoofing knife, or the large tome that appeared to be bound in real skin and exerted the soft sound of breathing from between the pages.

"Don't touch anything," warned Ri.

"I wasn't going to," said Em, hastily drawing back from reaching out to touch the latest oddity that had caught her eye. Unbeknownst to Ri, who was facing the other way, the practiced thief had already filched something and then hidden it in the pocket of her hoodie. She wasn't entirely sure what it was but if it came from the Evil Queen's secret lair then it must be something cool.

"I bet you will come in handy later," Em whispered to her stolen object.

Ri looked around the crypt herself but she was far less interested in magical knick knacks. Unable to avoid it any longer her eyes sought out the plate on the coffin on which her father's name was inscribed. It read: 'Beloved father, Henry Mills Snr'. There was a bouquet of fresh white lilies laying on top that must have been left recently by her older self. She walked around the small space examining it from all angles. Her hand trailed across the surface leaving voids in the dust. Tears came to her eyes.

"Daddy..."

Em came up behind her to offer to wrap her up in her arms but Ri was tensed into herself and barely noticed the other girl's presence. Ever since the young Regina had learned about casting the curse in her future's past the lilt in her step became weighed down and each one brought her closer to the darkness that encroached upon her life. The friends and family she'd found here in Storybrooke had helped her deal with so much but this was the part of her future that she would have to go through alone.

"Are you ok, Ri?" asked Em, sounding concerned.

"No." Ri realised as she said it. "I'm not ok. Em, go wait outside."

"But-"

"Please. I want to be alone with my parents. I have something I need to say. I don't want you here for this."

Em's face was full of such pity and sadness for her that Ri almost couldn't bear it. This was her grief, it was only about her. Ever since they had met, everything had been about them both and they had been perpetually attached at the hips. But now, for once, Ri preferred to have some space to herself. Em had grown up not knowing what it was like to have parents and therefore knew nothing about losing them. Death had not touched her world yet and Ri was glad of it. A girl who was currently creating a new life within her should have nothing to do with a place of death.

"Ten minutes, please?" said Ri.

Em looked like she was dying to argue. Ri knew if the situations were reversed she wouldn't want to leave her girlfriend to deal with her grief alone either. But she would respect Em's wishes as Em would now respect hers, however hard it was in practice.

"Okay, ten minutes." Em said reluctantly. "But I'll be right outside if you need me."

Ri smiled. "I know."

"FYI, if you want a shoulder to cry on, it just so happens that I have two."

Even at such a time as this Em Swan couldn't help being charming. She went outside via the crypt's door and poked her head around the gap for one last look.

As soon as the other girl was gone, Ri chanced another look at the coffin now that she was alone. Her chin trembled and the tears broke free to run down her cheeks. It wasn't merely grief and sadness that filled her heart. It was anger.

How could I have done this to my own father! I don't understand. I lost more in casting the curse than anyone else did in being one of its victims. Why did no-one try to stop me from hurting myself?

Daddy, why didn't YOU stop me. Did you try? Or did you let me have my own way in everything the same way you did with my mother? You would have been the only one I might have listened to. A father ought to protect his child, even from herself.

Did you know what I was planning to do to you? Would you have tried to change my mind if you had? Perhaps you sacrificed yourself so that I might be happy in the new life I wanted to create. A life that came to include my darling boy. But you didn't know that at the time! Your sacrifice turned out to be worth it in the end but it was not for the right reasons. Can I live with what I've done?

It would be strange talking to someone who appeared not to be there and who probably was too far gone into the next world to hear a word that was being said to them. She swiped at her tears and gathered her thoughts into what she wanted to say to the one she had loved most from her earliest years. Her words started out shakily.

"Hi Daddy. It's me, Regina. I miss you so much..."

Ri imagined her father's kindly face and told him all about her adventures in Storybrooke. She smiled when she told him about meeting Em and finally getting to experience the love she had wished for so many times in her early teens when she had been young and hopeful. If he could hear her at all now, she wanted him to think of her that way. Instead of how he had last seen her.

"I'm so sorry, Daddy. You must have died thinking of me as the Evil Queen, a daughter so bloodthirsty for revenge that I- … I can't even say it aloud! I am sick to my stomach at the thought of it. I wish you knew how I ended up as my older self. She's ok now. It took a long time but she came through it eventually. I think she's as happy as she can be, and she has Emma and Henry to help her now. I wish you could have had the chance to know my son. He's so beautiful and smart. I believe I would do anything for my child. I would kill for his sake or die myself if I had to… and that's how I know why you did what you did, because you would have done anything for your child too. I love you."

A loud clink of metal scattered on the stone floor. Ri startled and looked down at her feet where a curved U-shape lay, something that had definitely not been there a second ago. The familiar object was immediately recognisable. She bent down to pick it up, turning it over in her hands. It wasn't just any old horseshoe. This one was not made from modern steel instead it was smithy iron, rusted with age.

"Rocinante!" she gasped.

Father had acquired the black stallion who became her favourite childhood steed and best friend. It was he who had named the horse Rocinante, after the skinny horse in the novel Don Quixote which father and daughter had read together. It was her father who encouraged her to learn to ride and it soon became her favourite pastime (and an endless point of contention with her mother).

Horseshoes were superstitious objects used for good luck or sometimes as charms against witchcraft. Had her father sent it as a gift, a reminder of happier times? Was the shoe a sign from him that all was well between them? Or was it more sinister, a warning perhaps.

The smell of iron transferred to her skin and now her palms smelled like old dried blood.

Ri noticed there was something else on the floor near her feet where the sarcophagus met the stonework. There were scrapes marring the ground as though something large and heavy had been pushed or dragged across it. They disappeared under the coffin.

Was there something underneath?

Ri crouched into position, leaning her shoulder against the wall of the sarcophagus. She pushed against it, putting all of her weight behind the effort of moving it. The heavy stone gave way and cleared a gap in the floor to reveal a staircase leading to a hidden area. It seemed there was more below the surface of this crypt than there was above it.

She was too curious to not go on exploring.

Downstairs her mother's coffin rested in an ante-room of its own. It was the sound of beating hearts that led her to it. At first the rhythms pounded softly and grew into a deafening crescendo as Ri approached. She tried not to think too much about what was contained in the wall of small boxes. When she placed a hand on the golden coffin in which her mother rested, the noise quietened as though waiting for her to begin.

As with the coffin upstairs, her mother's gold casket was also topped with flowers. Dark red long-stem roses this time. Ri placed her hand on the smooth shiny surface of the coffin and closed her eyes.

"Mother," she sighed. "I am sorry things ended badly between us. I do not know all of the details but I cannot imagine it happening any other way since our relationship has always been nothing if not volatile. I do not share your dreams and ambitions for me. I never did. You should have listened to me and tried to find out who I really was. At the time I didn't realise that you weren't always right about the things you used to tell me about the world. Growing up I felt that I wasn't perfect enough, that I would never be the daughter you wanted. But I know enough now to see that you weren't the mother I wanted either. One thing I've learned from your example is that I want to be better for my son."

Ri smiled, imagining her mother's reaction to her words so far and the ones yet to come. For the first time she could talk to her without being interrupted and it swelled her courage for what she had to say.

"I suspect you would be horrified by my choice of partner in life, or as Em would say 'my partner in crime'. She is a wonderful girl and I love her so dearly that sometimes I think my heart might burst with it. Do you know who she is, Mother? She is a Royal princess, heir to the throne, though she does not represent the traditional image of one. She is strong and brave and true. I believe we will love each other forever. So you see, I ended up choosing better for myself than you did on my unwilling behalf. I know you thought you were doing what was best for me… but you were wrong about what that was."

"I forgive you. I think you were wronged much in life, Mother, and you made it your life's work to punish others for it. But you overlooked the happiness that was right in front of you: your husband and your daughter. We might have numbed your bitter pain if you had given us a chance to be a real family."

"But you picked revenge over hope. I won't be making the same mistake. I choose my new family, Emma and Henry. The Mills Family legacy... the darkness, the vengeance, and the violence, it all stops with him. My son."

Ri had barely finished her speech when she heard voices coming from above. It sounded like Em was shouting or arguing with someone outside, and it must have been loud if Ri could hear it all the way down in the bowels of the crypt. But who would be around at this time of night in the middle of the cemetery? Who in Storybrooke could antagonise Em enough to rile the teenager up into a verbal fight?

"... you're crazy, you vicious old Goose! As if I would do that. Why would I bother?"

"I know it was you, young lady. You cannot fool me anymore. I know exactly who you are."

"Good for you."

"More importantly, I know who your little friend is and the monster she grows into being. That whole family is rotten to the core and has been infected with the disease of magic for generations. You are from a proper Royal family. You'd do best to remove yourself from making any connections with the name of Mills."

Em said smugly. "We got engaged tonight."

"Then I must stop this from endangering the town even more than it already is."

Ri raced up the stone steps leading to the upper room, taking two at a time. She called out. "Em! Are you ok? I'm coming."

The crypt door lay ajar and the voices carried through. What she heard struck fear into Ri's heart. It was Em pleading with her attacker. It sounded like there was a struggle in progress. Why didn't Em fight back? She was a scrappy girl who lived on the streets, she could hold her own against almost anyone. Ri had only been gone for ten minutes. Why, why, had she left her alone!

"For a teacher you're really dumb! It takes ages to knock someone out with that shit. Did you steal it from the chem lab? You could've taken five seconds to Google 'how to kidnap someone' before you came here."

"No, don't! I'll come with you if I don't have to breathe it. Please, I'm pregnant. It might hurt the baby."

"It's not another trick. Let go of me. Ri! RI, I NEED YOU!"

"EM!" Ri screamed as she reached the door. She was close now. They were just outside. But as she moved through the door it was slammed shut in her face. The force of it knocked her backwards and she fell.

The back of her head struck the stone floor and dazed her instantly. She tried to stay awake, tried to get up but her efforts were futile. Ri fought the pull of unconsciousness gripping her in its claws as it dragged her under. She lost the fight and the dark void swallowed her whole.

Neal's apartment, Manhattan, New York City

Her fiance was asleep in bed next to her, snoring hoarsely. He lay on his stomach and had a heavy arm draped across her back. Tamara was awake and that's why she saw Neal's phone light up silently in the dark indicating that there was a new message coming through.

Without jostling Neal too much, she reached out and grabbed the phone off the nightstand and frowned at the name displayed on the screen:

1 missed call

1 new message from Emma

Tamara was unimpressed by the identity of the sender. She was not a fan of the pretty blonde with the boyish swagger, terrible dress sense, and a likable nature. Being dragged from her life to Storybrooke to meet Neal's ex-girlfriend and - Surprise! his biological son - had not been conducive to her wedding plans. When she'd started dating Neal she'd been relieved that like her he had no familial connections to interfere or make things complicated. Things were always complicated when there was an extraneous child involved. She hoped that they wouldn't have to see much more of that Henry.

She flicked her thumb across the screen and typed in Neal's passcode. The message from his ex said:

Neal, I know why you left Storybrooke now. Did your Dad tell you something about Henry as a baby? I need to ask you an important question, even though it's gonna sound weird. Did anything happen between us recently?

Tamara sneered to herself. Would they ever be free of these people? Was it too much to ask that she find someone unattached? Neal was supposed to be free of connections. He worked at Wall St as a stockbroker and made a lot more than his shabby apartment indicated. That'd be the first thing to go, she decided. Maybe they could move to Brooklyn after the wedding. Hopefully his father wouldn't want to be in attendance. There was something extremely odd about that man, and about everyone from Storybrooke in fact. Including Neal's ex.

The last thing she wanted was to know about anything that happened between her fiance and his ex "recently". No matter. She'd put a stop to it, whatever it was.

Tamara tapped an icon on the screen and was pleased with herself. She'd keep an eye out to intercept any further messages but was confident that Neal would be none the wiser. All of Emma's messages would be deleted before he even saw them.

Main Street, Storybrooke

Emma let herself become visible where she was standing on the sidewalk outside the Pawnbroker's shop. The darkening clouds above were barely discernible from the night sky and they hid the moonlight. A cruel wind had picked up and it whipped her hair into tangles. She squinted looking up and down Main street in the soft flickering glow of the streetlights. She could have sworn that the wind was gusting toward her from both sides… or was it coming from all sides?

Something seemed off about the activity in the normally quiet street too. A car alarm nearby was wailing and she thought she heard the sound of a minor prang accompanied by loud voices. She couldn't see the car accident so it must have been in one of the streets close by.

Emma wasn't the only one out in the street and the identity of the other person was no surprise at all.

She kept her expression neutral as Regina approached with her usual unhurried yet purposeful stride. Despite their fight they had both turned up in the same place for help with the crisis. The last thing they'd rationally discussed and agreed upon was needing Gold's counsel.

Emma had to raise her voice to be heard over the howling weather. "Fancy seeing you here, Your Majesty. Outside your former master's Evil Lair."

Regina gestured to the door to the shop and then brushed away the locks of hair that the wind blew into her face. "Shall we go in and ask Gold if he knows what the hell is going on? Or would you rather go for a stroll so that we can rehash history in this redundant fashion."

"Why did you go to my parents' place after we fought?"

Regina hid her surprise with impressive composure but didn't ask how Emma knew. She countered with a question of her own. "Why did you leave?"

"I didn't. I was with you the whole time."

"Oh, I see now. Using your invisible magic to stalk me then? A new entry for your ever-expanding rapsheet. Congratulations, Sheriff."

Oh great, 'the Mayor' is back, thought Emma sarcastically. So this was how it was going to be. They were already back to snarking at each other and taking cheap shots. Before Emma could answer with a retort of her own, the phone in her back pocket sounded with the Snow White theme. There were 27 missed calls on the screen.

"Mary Margaret, I'm sorry about-" Emma started to say. She stopped as she listened to her mother's warnings. "Hold on. I'm going to put you on speakerphone. The weather's gone wild so let me know if you can hear ok."

The phone's tinny speakers had to compete with the noise of the wind. Mary Margaret's voice came over with a slight crackle. "Emma, where are you? We've been worried sick. Regina came here looking for you and -xxxxxchhhh- upset. Can you still hear me?"

Emma spoke up. "Yes. Regina's here with me. We're down the street, outside Gold's."

"Good. At least you're both in the same spot for once tonight. I've got the Council members here. If you two have a plan for what to do, now is the time to tell us."

"What's going on?"

"-xxxxxxchhhh xxxxch- reports of memory loss. Kathryn was not the only one."

Emma frowned. "Say again?"

"People are losing their memories. They have been turning up at the hospital with amnesia, more in the last few days. Obviously the patients themselves don't think anything is wrong but their relatives and friends are telling the doctors that they've forgotten their fairytale identities. We can't keep this a secret any longer, it's gone public. People are panicking."

At the time of her first Council meeting where they'd discussed the threat to the town a small frisson of dread had settled uneasily in Emma's stomach and had grown steadily each day since, gnawing at her conscience. It felt like it weighed a ton now as she listened to her mother's report.

This was it. What they'd been fearing over the last two months or so had finally happened. It had not seemed real until now.

"The border is here?" Emma surmised.

"Yes, it's closing in on the town," said her mother. "We're keeping an eye on the map Regina made. Not only is the border moving again, it's currently moving faster than it was before."

"Is it accelerating as it gets closer to the middle of town?" asked Regina.

"Maybe," said Mary Margaret over the phone. "Why do you say that?"

Regina explained. "Henry's physics assignment on space-time also mentioned 'black holes'. A black hole is a region in space with gravity so strong that nothing inside can escape, not even light. The closer you get to one the faster you must accelerate to avoid being sucked in. Time itself deforms."

"So however much time we think we have left we may actually have less than that?"

"It gets worse," Regina said in a grim voice. "There is a point of no return, a boundary beyond which a reversal is impossible. Henry says it's called the Event Horizon. Once the border shrinks to a certain size there will be no stopping it."

"How does Henry even know all that stuff?" said Emma. "About physics and black holes and time travelling. He's eleven."

"Santa brought him Stephen Hawking's book 'A Brief History of Time' for Christmas last year."

Emma groaned. "Reginaaa! I can't decide which of you is worse. Henry, for still believing in Santa, or you, for buying him a textbook for Christmas. Couldn't you just get him a remote control car like a normal kid."

"He asked for the book!" said Regina, defending herself. "It's what he wanted. He got a chemistry set and some other toys as well."

"Yeah, too many, judging by his overflowing room. You spoil him."

"With books and toys?! How am I spoiling him by giving him a good education. It's what's best for him. At least I don't encourage his misbehaviour and bad language like you do. Unfortunately, he has also inherited your propensity for running away. He idolises you and hangs on to every word you say. Don't you dare tell him about Santa before he's ready, Emma."

"WHAT?!" Emma laughed. "That makes no sense at all! You're the one who didn't want him believing in stuff that's not real. Like fairytales! You said he needed a dose of reality."

"Have you forgotten?" Regina raised an eyebrow. "The fairytale stories actually happened. We're real people."

Emma scoffed. "I am real. I'm not so sure about the rest of you."

"You're really annoying is what you are."

"GIRLS!" shouted Mary Margaret over the phone, reminding them that it was supposed to be a threeway conversation. "This is not the time for sniping at each other. We need to do something about the border. Now. But we don't even know why this is happening. What should we do?"

"We'll get back to you," said Regina. She snatched the phone out of Emma's hand and pressed End Call to cut the conversation short. She didn't hand the phone back though. Instead she was scrolling through it and searching for something.

"What are you looking for, Regina?" said Emma, huffily crossing her arms. "I haven't been sexting anyone but you and this is hardly the time for a paranoid fit of jealousy. I told you Ruby sent that message to me by mistake."

"You didn't call her?"

"Who?"

"Em."

"No. I didn't. I was never going to call her and upset both of the girls. But not because you forbade me to. For the record, you don't get to do that. You don't get to forbid me to do anything."

"You messaged Neal instead," Regina said, making it sound more like a question. "But he never replied."

"So?"

"I suppose the mystery remains. Perhaps we will never know the truth about Henry's conception."

Emma gave her a look of disbelief. "For god's sake, that's not important right now! The town is gonna disappear under our feet."

"Apparently it's important enough for you to walk out on me."

"Regina, I-"

They both startled around in the direction of glass breaking. One of the shop windows half the street away disintegrated into a shower of glittering shards. A few boys in dark clothes were laughing. They grabbed a few things from the shop and ran off in the space of two minutes. It could be one minute to midnight before the apocalypse and there would still be looters.

A sudden gust of wind nearly knocked Regina off her feet it was so strong. Emma lurched towards her by instinct to catch her in open arms before she could fall. As soon as their bodies met the other woman extricated herself and shook all further assistance away. Regina said nothing and wouldn't look at her. It was worrying for several reasons.

When Emma had been tempted to walk out earlier that night it was only to take a break and to calm her temper. She never intended to leave leave. Maybe Regina didn't know that though. She was obviously still hurt by it. Did Regina think that she wouldn't protect her because they were in the middle of a fight? No matter what happened between them, they were family now and Emma had vowed to always be there for her son's mother. Whether Regina liked it or not.

Emma reached out to Regina's cheekbone and pressed her thumb below a small bleeding cut. "You're hurt."

Regina swiped at it herself, smearing the blood. She checked her fingers. "It's nothing."

"But the wind. It brought the glass-"

"I said it's nothing."

"Where are Em and Ri?" said Emma, changing the topic. "Surely they're not still out somewhere at this hour, in this weather?"

Regina shook her head. "They're not at home. Or your mother's, I was just there."

"So was I. Why do I get the feeling that whatever is going on has something to do with the teenagers? All of the trouble started when they got here. But I don't understand what they have to do with the border shrinking. Now they're missing and everything is out of control."

A bell jingled when the shop door opened suddenly right next to them and Gold popped his head out. He was wearing the sheep-crap smelling scarf of Baelfire's around his neck. Emma recognised it as the one that prevented his memories from being erased when they'd left Storybrooke to go find Neal in New York. Apparently the pawnshop broker was nonplussed by the strange storm that was brewing outside. He faced them with mild indifference, as though nothing weird was going on.

"Can I help you with your disappearing town problem?" Gold offered, sounding like a polite storekeeper trying to sell them some of his wares.

"How do you know about that?" said Emma, shocked at first then she rolled her eyes. "Wait, what am I talking about. This is a disaster so of course you have something to do with it. You lied. You were behind this the whole time."

"Oh, I had nothing to do with this. In fact, if you had done your job thoroughly, Miss Swan, we'd never be facing this problem at all."

"Her job?" Regina repeated.

"As the Saviour she was supposed to bring back the happy endings. There has been a partial improvement at best. Now that the town is shrinking and people are losing their memories things have taken a serious downturn wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah," Emma agreed. "Everything's going back to the way it was. They're losing their memories, except the ones from when they were miserable and living a lie. The Saviour was supposed to prevent all that by breaking the curse."

"Why is this happening, Gold," demanded Regina. "Why is my town going to hell?"

Gold smiled a wolfish grin and laid down his hand of cards with a verbal flourish. "It's simple, dearies! The problems with the memories, the magic, and the border… they are all caused by one and the same. The curse was never really broken. Now it's coming back with a vengeance and we all must weather the storm."