Chapter twenty-four

Regina stared at her mother for a few moments, while Cora just smirked in return.

"M-mother," she stuttered out.

"Yes, dear it is me," Cora laughed, "I see the dark curse has made you far less articulate."

Regina looked around in vain, desperately wishing for their bags back. That fool Mulan has her heart.

Emma quickly stood in front of Regina, knowing that her dark magic would be useless in here.

"Stay away, Cora," she warned.

The Queen of Hearts began laughing manically, "found yourself another lapdog?"

Regina visibly winced at the mention of Graham, only to realise that he was perfectly healthy.

"Emma is the saviour," Snow countered.

The blonde gave her mother an exasperated look, before turning back to Cora.

"Is that supposed to frighten me?" Cora chuckled.

"If you try anything, than it definitely should ," Emma replied, raising her hands, two balls of white energy formed, so glad that worked, Emma internally sighed in relief.

"Light magic?" Cora asked, looking astonished for a moment before shaking her head, "is that supposed to impress me?"

"Come closer and find out," Emma said angrily.

"Emma!" Regina scolded.

"We don't have the heart, what else am I meant to do?" she whispered, but not quiet enough.

"My heart?" Cora asked with a raised eyebrow, "I'm very disappointed that after all of these years you still haven't learnt that love is weakness."

Regina took a calming breath, starting to wonder whether her reunion with her mother in purgatory should have been enough, "and how would know? You haven't felt it in decades."

"And you have?"

"Yes, in fact I have, mother," she spat.

"And who would be foolish enough to love the Evil Queen?" Cora laughed.

Regina winced again, and Emma seriously considered just ending this now.

"Apparently I am," Emma replied.

"You...two?"

"That was not a good idea," Regina whispered.

"Why?" Emma asked with a furrowed brow.

"She is ten times worse than your mother," she replied with a sigh.

"I thought I beat those disgusting tendencies out of you years ago," Cora roared, slowly walking forward, only to realise that she had no magic.

Snow looked in shock at Cora, had I really been like her, she shook her head and said, "it's not disgusting, it's true love."

"Well that didn't take her long," Regina muttered.

Emma tried not to snicker, and ending up just smirking.

"If you lay a hand on my daughter or her girlfriend, I will end you," Snow sneered.

"And what could you possibly do to me, princess?" Cora laughed.

Emma and Regina exchanged a look, and the blonde said, "I wouldn't underestimate a pissed off Snow White."

Cora looked at the blonde, and raised her hand as if to slap her.

Snow launched forward, grabbing her arm she twisted it slightly, and kneed her in the stomach.

"Snow!" Regina shouted.

"Oh my God, I guess I got carried away," she replied while looking at the woman on the floor.

Regina shook her head, "that was amazing," she breathed, before turning Emma, "get us to safety."

Emma quickly nodded, she grabbed each of their hands, and focused on going outside. A moment later, white smoke engulfed them, and they materialised not far from camp, where there appeared to be three ogres running rampant.

"It never ends," Emma muttered, turning to Regina and Snow she asked, "one each?"

Regina felt fear for a moment, before swallowing hard and nodding. Twirling her hand, another bow and arrow appeared in Snow's hands.

Five minutes later, each ogre lay dead, and Mulan jogged up to them.

"How did you get out?" she asked angrily.

"I think you should be saying thank you," Emma replied.

Aurora came up behind Mulan and placed her hand on the warriors shoulder, and Emma smiled at the blush that appeared on Sleeping Beauty's cheeks as she did so, just like last time, she thought.

"Mulan, they are clearly very powerful, and the queen does seem willing to help."

Mulan let out an exasperated sigh, and turned to Aurora, "she's the Evil Queen."

"How about we make a deal, you stop calling her the Evil Queen, and we can help you find Prince Phillip," Snow offered.

Regina looked at her in shock, and was offered a timid smile in return.

"It would increase your chances of finding him," Emma added, "and you can even come with us to a safer land."

"Safer land?"

"Storybrooke, it's where we live, and there's like a 99% chance that there are no ogres."

Regina looked at her sceptically, and Emma mouthed 'go with it'. Because that went so well last time Regina thought, while she rolled her eyes.

Mulan considered this for a moment, "and how would we get to this Storybrooke?"

"There's something we would need to do first," Emma said.

Mulan tilted her head, "assuming we accept, what would that be?"

"We need to give Cora her heart back," Snow replied.

"You're on board," Emma whispered.

Snow shrugged and Emma smiled at Regina.

Mulan looked at them for a few moments, "her heart?"

"It's in one of the bags that you ungraciously stole from us," Regina replied with narrowed eyes, "besides I don't think it would be a good idea."

Emma quickly pulled her aside, "what?"

"You saw what's she's like, what if the heart doesn't help? She could have just been acting when I talked to her," Regina sighed.

"So you just want to go home?"

Regina nodded, and Emma sighed, "okay, but let me know if you change your mind." Despite her words, Emma was already planning ways to defy her girlfriend.

"Okay, we need to go to the White castle and get the dust from the wardrobe," Emma announced.

Mulan looked at her for a moment, before approaching and extending her hand, "fine, deal."

"Aurora!" a voice called.

Emma's eyes widened, noticing another Mulan approaching.

Crap, she thought. Looking up at the one who now had her hand in a vice like grip. "Let me guess, Cora?" she sighed.

A black cloud engulfed this version of Mulan, and Cora appeared in front of the blonde, turning to Regina she smirked, "I believe you should have chosen a more observant lover, Regina."

Regina looked in fear at her mother.

"You'll thank me for this one day," her mother said, a dagger appeared in her hand, and she launched forward and embedded it in the saviour's gut.

"NO!" Regina and Snow shouted at the same time.

Cora knelt down next to the barely breathing blonde, and said, "thank you for the precious information," looking up at her daughter, she said, "I'll see you in Storybrooke," before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

A/N Hey guys, I've found that writing is quite a good distraction, so I will be updating, but the updates may be a bit unpredictable :/

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, please let me know what you think. Also from my current plan, it looks like I won't need to write Hook into it, but I think that I will need Robin for season three :)

Also I decided to make Cora slightly OOC, since she's at all more openly sadistic, let me know if you want that to change in future chapters