Camelot
Stood in the throne room in the early evening, King Arthur watched his courtiers as he though of his simple beginnings as child dreaming of a better future for himself and his true love, and then the disappointing discovery of pulling Excalibur from the stone only to see it incomplete. He had been waiting for this day to come for decades, and the return of Juno's vessel would only solidify his plans for his kingdom.
He heard many tales of the Black Widow, the figure that hunted down what little remained of the Brotherhood for her own personal vengeance, and now he could see it for himself. He saw the darkness that behind the light that still remained in her eyes, pretending to be the hero she was not. The hero she will never become once he has what he wants from her.
The mans thoughts were interrupted when his newly welcomed knight to the round table entered the throne room alone. "You wanted to see me" he greeted the King from the doors as he entered the room.
"Yes. Yes, we have something serious to discuss, please, join me" Arthur ushered the man forward in as he approaches the round table himself "Now that you're a member of the Round Table, it's time to share Camelot's greatest secret" he says as the King unsheathes his legendary sword out of its sheath on the table.
David prepared himself to see the legendary sword, only to be left shocked to see it was broken "The sword that made me king is broken. For years, I've hunted its missing known as the dagger of the Dark One".
"I've heard tales of it" David easily lies to the King.
"Well, I think you're the man to help me find it. After all, you're the only one who needs it as bad as I. You're desperate to destroy the power of the Dark One".
"Only Merlin can do that" David stated to the King.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not" he tells the former Prince "There is another that can help us destroy the Dark One as well".
This was news to the Prince as they hadn't heard of a second way to help his daughter. They hadn't had any headway of finding a way to free Merlin from the tree and their only lead was lost to them after losing the Crimson Crown to the lake. There was hope.
"Who are they?".
"She calls herself Juno. The story goes is that she created the first Dark One to walk this land, and if she can create one-".
"-she can destroy one too" the Prince realized out load finishing the King's sentence. This was almost music to his ears that there was a second way to help his daughter, this Juno would be able to destroy the darkness once and for all.
"Where is she? How can we get to her?" he eagerly asked the man ready for the next quest to find this..Juno and get her to save Emma. But the excitement of a quest hadn't reached the King's face as a troubling look grew on his face.
"I'm afraid that is nearly impossible" the King tells him as disappointment laced his voice "She has been trapped within Excalibur since its creation and only the blood of her kind will free her from the enteral prison. Merlin himself put her in" he goes on pointing to the yellow jewel that set into the hilt of the pommel.
David's brow's furrowing in confusion at the King words "What do you mean? Her kind?".
"The Brotherhood called them 'the one's that came before'. They were so called 'gods' that enslaved humans. Their descendants from centuries of interbreeding with their slaves led to a race of humans that possessed abilities that normal human could only ever dream of. These people hold the key to freeing Juno from the sword and only then she can help us".
"Is there anything we can do? Anything you might know that might help track them down, they could've have just vanished".
"I do know one thing" the King says "Have you ever heard of such a thing as Star Crossed Lovers?" he asked the man in front of him.
"No, I don't" David swallowed down the lie once again as his mind went to his friend.
"They are two people who are fated to be together, much like true loves, but these two people never get a chance to be together for longevity as fate intervenes once again to tear them apart in the worst possible way".
"What have they got to do with Juno?".
"Star-crossed lovers are a rare sight, but a child between them is even rarer. That child, is our answer to defeating the Dark One, they are the vessel to allow Juno to walk the land once again after being trapped for centuries. And luck is in our hands as her vessel walks in this very castle and only her blood would free her from her prison" the Kings says as he placed the sketches of Juno's likeness, showing them to his knight.
The Prince felt his heart drop to his stomach as the sketches that easily be older than him, portray the image of his friend as clear as day.
"What about Merlin? Can't he help?".
"No one knows what Merlin really wants, but with that dagger, we wouldn't need Merlin. I could re-forge Excalibur into the sword it once was with the power to destroy the darkness once and for all. Can you help me in this quest?".
Elsewhere in the castle, the woman herself was slipping deeper into sleep in Robin's room with Roland's head resting in the crook of her shoulder as he slept soundly after being told a one of his Auntie's story about hero's and monsters from another land, the same stories she had read about in her mother's book.
She had volunteered to put the toddler to bed as the evening set in after a busy day playing with his Uncle John and Anastasia who enjoyed the young boys imagination much to the redheads surprise and the other adults who had seen her playing with him.
The redhead assassin volunteered putting the toddler to bed after feeling the day get the better of her. She hated how much being pregnant sapped at her energy, but it was all going towards something important than how she felt.
After her absence had been noted by the others and an hour had passed with no sign of her return, the thief took it upon himself to find the woman already knowing what had happened while she put his young son to bed. It had happened many times before, especially in the year they spent together after years apart, when she would look after him if the thief ever found himself out on a long hunt or nightly patrol of the surrounding area for any sign of the Wicked Witches flying monkeys.
Quietly letting himself in to his room, his eye's found the woman slumped against the headrest with his son comfortably tucked into the crook of her shoulder deeply asleep curling into the dozing assassin after listening to one of her infamous bedtime stories and loved retelling what he remembered of them to whoever would listen.
The thief's feet quietly crept towards the bed, not to disturb the toddler in the woman's arms as he gently placed a hand on her arm as small snores left his son's nose, the thief lightly shook the woman making her wake with a start as her eye's opened to see that she accidentally had dozed off with Roland pinning her down to the headboard as her arm holding the boy in place had gone dead from Roland's weight. He was getting bigger by the day it seemed.
"Here" he says with a light chuckle as he took picked up his sleeping son off the grown woman as she shuffled to the edge of the bed trying to gain some feeling in her right arm and hand again.
"Where did you get to this time milady?" he asked her as he tucked his sons under the covers, sleeping like nothing had happened.
"Uhh, I think I got to Ariadne giving Theseus the thread" she tells in a hushed whisper him from the other side of the bed as she woke up from her doze.
He knew this story well. The Minotaur, the beast with the head of a bull and the body of a man in the labyrinth if he remembered correctly. He had been introduced to the stories her mother kept when he and Roland started staying in Monteriggioni. Roland enjoyed those stories the most and requested them, wanting to know if the hero's completed their quest.
"How long was I out?" she asked her friend as she pushed herself up on her feet as the remnant's of sleep were rubbed away by the fingers, making her way to the foot of the bed on her way out of the door.
"An hour or so. It's alright, I think we all knew what had happened" he said as he joined her at the foot of the bed to pair glanced towards the boy they both loved that still connected the pair.
The motherly love she had for him was the only thing that seemed to connect them now, but he couldn't help but wish deep down she wasn't the one carrying his child now, instead of the Wicked Witch that had fooled them all. But it wasn't to be, her heart belonged to the Queen, and he was happy for her. They said their goodbyes to any romantic relationship during the year they had when she returned from the Land of No Magic.
But lately the woman had been acting oddly towards him, it all started when she recoiled from him when he tried to calm her down after Zelena riled her up in her cell. She'd never done that before with him, always comfortable with the way he held her, even as friends. But there was something she wasn't telling everyone.
"I should go" Amelia tells her friend taking him out of his thoughts "Have a goodnight Robin".
"Goodnight Amelia" at that the redhead slipped out of the room to get a good nights rest, by the look of it she needed it as much as anyone did.
Venturing down the corridors towards hers and Regina's room the assassin was looking forward to a restful sleep only to come to a slowing stop when she saw Emma walking down the corridor with a vacant look on her face in a trance like state.
"Emma?" she tried to call out to the blonde woman only for her call to go unanswered as she saw where the woman was heading. And here she was hoping for a drama free night for once.
The lightly footed assassin continued to follow the younger woman as she turned the corner like she was heading towards her and Regina's room only for a flustered looking pirate to come out from nowhere making her come to abrupt stop.
"Cazzo!" the assassin exclaimed in surprise as her heart jumped into her throat at the small fright "What the hell are you doing?" she seethed at the man in a hushed whisper.
"Have you seen Emma?" he quickly asked the assassin.
"I was just following her, what is it?" she asks the man in confusion.
"She's not in her room. I left her there making dream-catchers and she's gone".
"Keep you hat on Jack Sparrow, I saw her heading to-" she cut herself off as she remembered where her's and Regina's room was located in the castle.
"Where?!" he almost yelled at the redhead trying to hurry her.
"Damn it Regina" she swore to herself for not seeing it straight away "The dagger" she simply stated to the man before they both ran after the blonde Dark One, hoping they weren't too late.
Letting herself into the former Queen and Assassin's room Emma continued to listen to the whispers that echoed through the long corridors of the castle as if they were leading her somewhere, or to something.
Opening the cabinet where the whispering was coming she found where they were coming from. The Dark One's Dagger. Or more importantly, hers. The one that inscribed her own name now in dark lettering, held in a long wooden box for anyone to take.
"So that's where it's coming from... Your dagger." the phantom of Rumpelstiltskin that had been haunting her, made himself know to her, standing in the open doorway "Since Regina left it in her room, I say, uh, finder's keepers".
Reaching out to take the dagger for herself, the newest Dark One is stopped as a magical barrier repels her attempt, making her recoil her hand back.
"So she put a spell on it. That's nothing for you. Shatter it" Rumpelstiltskin instructs her.
"I can't" she tells the phantom.
"It's calling to its other half" the phantom continued to tempt her.
"Leave me alone" she desperately tells it .
"Your friends cannot protect you".
"Stop".
"You're the Saviour. Save yourself before it's too late".
"Get out of my head!" she exclaims at the phantom whirling around to get rid of the ghost inside her head only for Hook and Amelia to suddenly appear in the doorway as the pirate pushes the redheaded assassin out of the way.
"Watch out!" he yells shoving the assassin out of the way of the burst of dark magic, making her hit the opposite door post as the magic went between the pair, where the assassin once stood.
A painful gasp escaped the assassin lips as her hand instinctively went to protect her stomach as Emma watched on, in wide eye panic that she had hit the pregnant assassin.
"You okay luv?" the pirate quickly asked the woman, who
"Lia?" she fretted to the woman, seeing the way the assassin held her stomach.
"It's fine. I'm okay" she quickly tells the blonde feeling that her back had taken the brunt of the shove, as she forced her hand away from her stomach, but her own reassurances to the blonde didn't help the way her heart thumped in her chest. That was close. too close in fact.
"Calm down" Hook tells the blonde slowly approaching her leaving the assassin to stumble over to the other side of open door "There's no one here. It's just us. You and me" he says pulling Emma into a gentle hug.
Emma gripped onto the pirate as he held her, as she saw Rumpelstiltskin's phantom stood in the doorway with Amelia, close to her once again.
"He's inside my head. I can't get him out. He's here. He's always here" she mumbles into his shoulder as she stared at the space next to the redhead.
As Emma rested on the foot of hers and Regina's bed with a vacant look in her eye's as her family gathered in the room around her in concern for the woman. They both knew what she was after, but decided to keep it to the themselves so not to alarm the other's too much. It would only had been a matter of time until she would come after the dagger, she was just relieved Regina had spelled it.
As Hook stayed by her side as Henry, Amelia and Regina watched the former savoir struggling to cope with the darkness that she was trying to fight off every minute of the day as her mother stood by her daughter's feet.
"What happened to her?" Mary Margaret asked Hook was by her side.
"I have no idea" Hook answered "She hasn't said a word".
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" David's voice suddenly said behind them, making them to see him stood in-front of the lit fireplace.
Mary Margaret quickly leaves her daughter's side to speak to her true love "David, where have you been?" she heard the Princes ask her husband in a harsh whisper "I was looking all over the castle for you".
"With Arthur" he whispered to his wife that Amelia still overheard from her place next to her partner "It turns out he might have a way to help Emma" he tells his wife.
"We can't…" she tried to say only for her husband to interrupt her.
"If we give him the dagger...".
"David, listen to me. We can't trust Arthur" she tells him.
"What are you talking about? Who told you that?".
"Lancelot" a curious brow raised on the red head's face as she heard the knights survival. Not many people survived against the old bat. She was impressed.
"Lancelot?" the Prince questioned his wife "Lancelot is dead"
"That's what he wanted Cora to think, but he outwitted her" The Princess tried to explain only for Regina to stop the couple arguing in front of their daughter.
"Hey" Regina caught the pairs attention leaving her partner and Henry "Not in front of the patient, given the state that she's in, anything could set her off" she scolded the arguing pair "She needs rest... Somewhere quiet and away from prying eyes".
"I know the perfect place" Henry tells them.
"Perhaps me and the boy should take her there" Hook suggested as he helped Emma up "Come on, love. Let's sail away" he says taking her hand in his as he, Emma and Henry leave before Regina closes the door behind them before turning back to the royal couple.
"Whatever's happening to her, I think she was here for the dagger, so I should probably move it somewhere safer" the former Queen tells the pair before crossing the room to join the Assassin again.
"She's right" Amelia spoke up agreeing with the former Queen "With what the Brotherhood knows about the Dark One's, and dealing with Rumple, they'll do just about anything to get their hands on it".
"Now, hold on a second" David stopped the Assassin "Arthur has a way to use that to help Emma".
"What did I just tell you?" Mary Margaret retorted "We are not giving it to Arthur. Lancelot said he can't be trusted".
"And Cora said Lancelot was dead. You can't believe everything you hear" he argued.
"You really don't trust Lancelot, do you? He married us. He's our friend" the former Princess argued as Amelia wished she had some popcorn right about now to enjoy this argument even further.
"That was a long time ago, and where's he been all these years?".
"He didn't say" Mary Margaret tells him.
"Well, where is he now?".
"Hiding. It's not like he's welcome in Camelot".
"Because he went after Arthur's wife! And he's back. Why? Why's he back".
"I don't know, David! I don't have all the answers!" Mary Margaret yelled at her husband finally realizing that Regina and Amelia are still standing there with folded arms, looking awkward as they listened to the arguing couple "Regina, Lia would you mind please giving us a minute?".
At her request the assassin stood still as a ploom of purple smoke engulfed the pair out of the room leaving the couple to continue arguing in private.
"Amelia can help us save Emma".
"Amelia?! What has she got anything to do with this?".
"Because she's the product of star crossed lover's, you heard what Hook said about her Mary Margaret, that she had the potential to become something more powerful than a Dark One. That is what we need right now. If Merlin can't help us, she can. Arthur said-"
"Oh Arthur said?" his wife exasperated in disbelief "Did he says exactly how she could help us? She doesn't' even have magic!".
"I don't know exactly, but she can and she will once we explain it to her. Listen, Arthur is already looking for the dagger. If we come clean now, he can still help us".
"So that's what this is about. You haven't met a king in a while, and you're star-struck" she accuses him.
"That's not what this is about. Our daughter is sick. We have to help her".
"So why become a Knight of the Round Table?" she questioned him "How does that help her? Or is it that you need to feel like a hero again?".
"Maybe the Round Table's exactly where I should be".
"We aren't telling Arthur anything until we know he can be trusted".
Reappearing in Merlin's tower the couple, Amelia felt her feet on solid ground as purple smoke dissipated around them as silence engulfed the couple
"Well that was entertaining" Amelia remarked dryly to her partner just as rush of dizziness washed through her mind as a quick hand found the edge of the table to keep herself upright as she rode through the nausea as the former Queen noticed her soulmate's sudden turn.
"Melia?" Regina asked the Assassin in concern seeing her partner come over suddenly.
"I'm fine, just a little dizzy" she tried to brush her partner off, she knew why she was feeling sick but she still couldn't make herself tell her the truth, the transportation spell must've stirred something up.
The brunette's mothering instincts kicked in and rested her hand on the redhead's forehead checking for any sign of a fever, but here was none as she tried to figure out what was wrong as the assassin perched herself on the edge of the table to get the room to stop spinning for a second "Are you sick? You don't look ill" Regina mused to herself as she continued to fawn over the redhead.
"Regina. I'm fine" she tells her love, taking gently taking a hold of her wrist to keep them still long enough to meet her brown eyes as her hand stilled cupping her face "You know I prefer the old fashioned way of leaving a room" she hoped the excuse would be enough to convince the former Queen for the time being that it was nothing.
"Mhhhm" the former Queen hummed to herself deep in thought taking the woman's answer for now. She never liked being moved around like that, always preferred to use her feet, but there was something the assassin wasn't telling her. But she would have to let it go for now. She knew better than to force whatever was wrong out of the woman, she would tell her. Eventually.
Taking her hands off the assassin whatever the woman had felt had passed as the redhead stood from the edge of the table as they needed to speak about the newest problem.
"Nice move with the spell by the way" she compliments the brunette's forward thinking to spelling the dagger "But we need a Plan B now, she'll know how to get through it next time".
"I know, what do you suggest we do?" she asked seeking out the woman's expertise.
"At first light we should get a jump start on hiding it. Go outside the castle walls, into the forest. I'll be able to find somewhere in plain sight to put it for the time being".
"You really think that'll work?".
"What choice do we have? If Arthur's after the dagger than we need to move it, before he sends his knights to search the whole castle. Either that or pray to the Al-Father that Emma will be able to fight the darkness again, but bets are at the moment she's not going to last much longer".
Regina could only nod in agreement at the redhead's plan. Her previous experience of hiking through the woods alone ended up with her and Swan fighting off an armored snowman, but at least she'd have the assassin with her in to find their way around. With the agreement made the redhead headed for the door determined to claim their room back from the arguing Charming couple only for her partner to question her move.
"Uh? Where are you going?" she curiously asks the woman with furrowed brows.
"We were kicked out of our own room. I'm going to bed. I'll see you there" the assassin answers her without looking back. Rolling her eye's, purple smoke engulfed the former Queen knowing the assassin would make her own way to their room to get all the rest they needed for the next day.
With Snow playing her part of the plan the Charming couple had come up with, with Lancelot and a fake dagger, she and Regina found themselves trekking through the forest that surrounded the castle to find a place to hide the real one.
And there was the added information David told them about the redhead. Her status of the product of Star-Crossed Lover's had made itself known again as the King was seeking out her blood to unlock a powerful being from the jewel that sat in pommel of the sword. He said this..Juno, would be able to help Emma faster than they would be able to get Merlin out of the tree. But she wasn't willing to find out how much of her blood would be needed to unlock that sort of power.
Carrying on with their plan for the day Regina and Amelia ventured outside the castle walls to do what they needed to do. The pair hadn't said much to each other since leaving the castle except from the general directions of where they should go as the assassin made subtle markers in the trees' with her hidden blade that would be able to track their way back to the dagger if needed.
Despite the situation with MJ blowing over, the assassin still hadn't really spoken to her since she confront her about her idea of adopting Robin and Zelena's child as their own, the conversation still hung over their heads like a grey cloud as the redhead wouldn't let go of her idea of a child for the both of them. And now she had to stew over the fact that she could do something to help Emma, but the former Queen had reservations herself about the idea.
They had no idea who this Juno was. And if she was as powerful as the King thought she was, they wouldn't be able to do anything if she decided to take matters into her own hands, even the darkest magic she would be able to conjure would be no match. But as they went along she couldn't help but think that the redhead knew more than she was letting on.
There was no hurry to get back to the castle. All King Arthur would know is that she and the assassin needed some time out of Merlin's tower to get a fresh perspective on their research and the assassin needed to stretch her legs after being cooped up in the castle for too long. They had time to find a hiding place for the dagger that Amelia had smuggled out on her person before handing it to her Queen once they were far away enough.
"What?" the assassin asked her partner as they slowly made their way further into the forest,"You're thinking really loud there Queenie. Speak up before you blow a fuse or something".
Rolling her eyes at her partner's words, the former Queen paused as she though how to word her concerns "Its just, we haven't really spoken since-".
"-since you insinuated that I wanted to adopt the spawn that your sister was cooking, yeah I remember, we've been a little busy, you know teenage girls trying to kill me in my sleep, my sister nearly drowning. You know the usual mundane stuff".
"Yes, that".
"Look just forget about it" she tried to brush the subject aside as she cut through the bark of a tree to leave another marker ahead of the Queen "It was stupid. We have more important things to worry about at the moment anyway".
"Its not stupid if it's important to you Melia" her partner tells her.
"What else is there to say Regina. You've made your point, it was stupid to think of stuff like that anyway" she tries to dismiss the woman again.
"I never said 'No'" Regina points out to the assassin as she tries to catch up to the woman "I want to look beyond the weekly fights as well, I just hard at the moment to see anything beyond next week, let alone a whole lifetime" she says making the assassin whirl around to face her coming to a stop at a hollowed tree stump.
"What about when we're done? That somehow Swan will get us all our happy endings and we get out of the other end unscathed, would we have to wait until Tom and Henry go off to college to finally start our lives together?" she asks the former Queen to be met by silence. "And like I said it'll never be the right time to talk about this stuff. Besides, we might never get another chance again".
"What do you mean?".
"The sword" she states to her partner "I wanted to wait until we were away from the other's to tell you, but in Altair's journal, he wrote about a weapon, one that would be able to kill any immortal being, including a Dark One. But instead of wanting to find it, he wanted the Brotherhood to protect stop it falling into the wrong hands. Only for a hero to be able to pull it from the stone. After he died, its importance was forgotten, as it became more fiction than fact, it became a legend. And what's another sword with the same story?".
"Excalibur" Regina states to the redhead before she continued.
"Altair gave it a different name each time he wrote about of Utopia, Shangri-La, Arcadia. Different word's but all the same meaning. A perfect Eden".
It was a Piece of Eden, the former Queen silently realized what her partner was trying to say.
"How can you be so sure?" she questioned the redhead.
"I don't know, but with it kept broken, it's useless to him. That's why he wants he dagger, it's the missing piece to making it whole again. And when he does, I don't think I'll be able to stop him using it on me".
Returning to the castle after spending most of the morning hiding the dagger, the couple waited for the Charming couple to return in their room, stood at the mantelpiece over the fireplace, the assassin watched as Regina paced the stone floor in front of her as they anxiously awaited for them to return.
"You're going to wear out the masonry if you keep pacing" The red head tells the former Queen "I'm sure David and Snow are fine".
Regina scoffed at Amelia's words whirling around to look at her "You think I'm worried about them? Those two can outlive a cockroach. I want to know how their test went. I get antsy when I don't know who I should hate", she tells the assassin just as the couple in question walk into the room behind the former Queen.
"I think we can help with that" Mary Margaret announced as she and David re-joined them.
Seeing the couple Amelia and Regina let out a sigh of relief seeing the couple return unscathed "What took so long?" the former Queen asks them.
"Turns out David was right" Mary Margaret admitted "We can trust Arthur".
"And Lancelot?" the assassin asked them.
"Locked safely in the dungeon" David answered the redhead "He was lying. Our best move now is to give Arthur the real dagger".
"We just spent all day hiding it, like we agreed upon" Regina argued to the pair.
"Plans change" Mary Margaret tells them "Making Excalibur whole is our best chance to help Emma" she says as she and her husband look towards the redheaded assassin that Arthur needed to keep on side for his plan to work "And with Amelia's help well be able to do just that".
As stoic look remained on the redhead's face as Regina looked at her with a look of worry knowing her soulmate's hypothesis. She just hoped for once the assassin was wrong for once.
Storybrooke
Present
After long day , finding the Crimson Crown felt like a step in the right direction in the search to find out in the last six week of their lives, but as pregnant assassin started to show signs that she was done for the day, her soulmate quickly ended their day in the vault on the positive note to take the redhead back home to rest for the next day. But that didn't stop the assassin from bringing her research home as she tried to make herself comfortable on the living room sofa as she read every word that Altair was to have written.
She like other assassin heard stories that the Brotherhoods creator kept a journal, but it had gotten lost after Ezio Auditore another Brotherhood legend had found it in Altair's own skeletal hands. Monteriggioni was built above and around the underground sanctuary by Ezio and what little remained of his family, keeping its walls with the border's of the invisible shield that kept magic out of the city.
As she opened the book for the first time since discovering what it was by King Arthur only for a piece of paper to fall out, the same size as the one Regina found in the book marking the page for the Crimson Crown. From her place lounged out on the white sofa she tried to reach down to pick it back up as he heard the front door to the house opened and closed.
Giving up the assassin swung her feet and legs to si normally as Tom found her
"Hey Mom" the teen greets her seeing her struggling to pick up a piece of paper from the ground Here" he says quickly scooping it up from the floor before handing it to his mother.
"Thank you. How was your day?" .
The teen shrugged at his mother as he slumps onto the sofa next to the redhead "Fine. Hung out with MJ mostly, we were helping each other catch up with our homework we missed in the library".
"You know I think we have a pretty good excuse for not having your homework done in a while, I even think I can convince one of your teachers to give you both a passing grade for the semester".
"It's fine, keeps me busy" he says seeing black and white pictures on the coffee table catch his attention as his brows furrow seeing the odd shape "Is..that the baby?" he asks his mother with apprehension lacing his voice as he eye's her noticeable bump.
He hadn't said much to her after finding out his Mom was secretly pregnant, she just had to give him all the space he needed to process what she had been keeping form him and everyone else. She forgot how this would effect him in all the drama that surrounded her discovery.
"Your Dad and I went for scan today, did you wanna to see it?" gently offering him the option to look at the picture.
"Sure" he answers sitting up right to pick up the prints Dr. Whale had printed off for her and John. She had the same picture on her phone, but she liked the feeling of the physical copies. She watched her son take in every detail of the still pictures of his unborn sibling.
"Did you find out what it is?" he asks her, looking way from the sonogram.
"No, we decided to wait. But your Dad keeps calling it a girl".
"Really?".
"Yeah. Although I wouldn't put all your money on it, he kept calling you a girl" she tells him making him laugh, the chuckle made the redhead's mind ease to see him comfortable talking about the baby, when all other attempts were quickly shut down.
"We always talked about having a big family" she added seeing a ghost of a smile twitched up on the corner of his lips hearing what kind of future that his parent's would've had if they hadn't been found.
"How many?".
"If it was up to your Dad. Enough to crew a tern schooner, but I managed to convince him to three, four at most. He has no idea what being pregnant is like".
Seeing the look on his face the redhead reached up to gently brush away a brown curl of hair from the side of his face to see the scar that he had lived with for most of his life, using the pad of her thumb to trace it "I'm sorry for not telling you, I was scared how you would react. What you would think once I told you all ".
"I know" he tells her "You want a second chance to be a Mom".
The redhead was slightly taken aback with his use of wording. He had overheard her and Regina's argument the night they returned home "That doesn't mean I don't love you any less you know. And I know you'll be an amazing big brother. Because you already are one".
The teen's smile grew hearing the his mother say this before leaning his head down onto her shoulder, allowing her to hold her growing, baby boy in her arms for as long as she could, burying her nose in his hair, the same way she did when he was small.
"I love you Mom".
"Love you too" she tells him leaving a loving kiss on his head before he sat back up "Get washed up, I think dinner's almost ready".
"Kay" he mumbled as he stood up from the couch, leaving the sonogram where he found it, only to see the words that been listed in his mother's writing on the peice of paper he had picked up from the floor;
Utopia
Shangri-La
Arcadia.
"Eden" Tom suddenly tells his mother.
"What?".
"It's what those words all mean. A perfect world" he tells her, before leaving the living room to bound up the stairs. Looking at the list she must've written in Camelot she saw that he was right. They all described a perfect world.
Seeing Tom making his way upstairs former Queen makes her way into living room to find her soulmate quickly flicking through pages of the journal King Arthur's had allowed her to keep. The one that had dropped on to station floor when they went to leave David and Mary Margaret to deal with the angry dwarfs.
"Everything okay in here?".
"Eden" she states to the older woman as she continues to search through the book like "Altair writes about a sword, the same sword each time, but all by different names" she continues "Utopia. Shangri-La. Arcadia" she lists off to the former Queen "Why didn't I think of that before?" the assassin inwardly chastised herself as she continued to search through any passage that would tell her what she needed to do.
But she was quickly stopped as Regina's hands took a hold of the book and gently take it out of her hands. It was the only way she could think of getting the redhead to stop and think about what she was trying to talk about.
"Think what?" she asked the redhead in concern taking a seat on the coffee table as she makes sense of the woman's ramblings.
"They all describe a perfect world. A perfect Eden" she trails off as the mayor tries to make sense of what her soulmate was trying to tell her.
"The Sword of Eden is said to be a powerful weapon, able to kill immortals with single stroke, it became a legend after it couldn't be found, but it's a story that's been passed down from assassin to apprentice ever since. What's another legendary sword with the same story?".
"Excalibur" the assassin answers for the Queen "The Sword of Eden, its a piece, like the Apple".
"Are you sure? If it's really a Piece of Eden, then why hasn't it been found yet" the older woman tried to reason with her love.
"I-" the redhead starts as she attempts to connect the dots in her head "It's broken" she tells her Queen "Like the Apple when it was burnt out. All power it had was gone until I brought it back before we went into Isaac's story".
"Melia, what are you trying to say?".
"We need to see what Emma's been hiding from all of us. I have a bad feeling that whatever she's planning, has something to why we're missing six weeks of our memories and it won't end well for anyone".
AN: Hello!
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