Quick AN:

R.I.P HRM Queen Elizabeth II


Being escorted through the Evil Queen's palace was a surreal experience, especially if she was being escorted by The Black Widow herself. The redhead walked in front of the blonde that had punched her with her hands clasped behind her back and her hood down so that the savior saw her long fiery hair that matched her personality. A servant boy walked past them going the opposite direction made the Assassin's head turns as she unclasped her hands and grabbed two pieces of bread rolls from the tray without stopping.

"Here" Amelia says throwing the bread to the blonde woman behind her, who managed to catch it despite her bound hands "I can't have you starving down there, while the Queen decides your fate".

"Thanks, I guess" the blonde replied un-enthused by the piece of food.

Amelia turned to walk backwards confidently with the busted lower lip that had scabbed over but still a bit swollen "If I had my you'd be dead already so don't count yourself lucky" Amelia turned back to walk forward normally again.

"What happened Amelia? You were helping me and Hook earlier" she whispered to the woman in front of her. She couldn't believe how quickly she could change from Amelia to the Black Widow. She had no idea how to deal with the villain in front of her.

A hearty chuckle left the assassin's mouth hearing this from the prisoner "The only reason I would ever help Captain Hook is if he paid his debt"

And what a debt it was. Once she was strong enough, she found the pirate and threatened him within an inch of his life. But instead of death she decided another punishment for him for his involvement of the Godspeed sinking. At the time, they had been carrying a large amount of cargo in its hull being a merchant ship after all. They were on their way to deliver it when they were boarded. So instead of paying for his life he would have to pay her the value of that cargo plus the value of her home. She didn't need the money, but seeing the man squirm each time he saw her was worth it.

"Rumpelstiltskin was going to cover the debt" the blonde told the red head making the older woman laugh at her.

"Don't make me laugh" she dryly retorted "That old bastard wouldn't pay off that pirate's debt. He hates him more than me".

"You helped Snow White" Emma pointed out redhead remembering the moment when the knight was going to take down the bandit while she was trying to run on horseback only to kill him before he got a chance to fire the arrow.

"Halt!" the Widow's voice echoed through the corridor of the palace as they all came to sudden stop. She turned around to face the blonde who had just uttered those word's in front of the knights "Take three steps back, turn around" the knights did exactly what the Widow ordered them to do as the blonde was left to watch them blindly follow her orders.

The Widow cocked her head to the side as she took in the blonde in front of her. There wasn't anything special about her. She was just another spoiled princess. And yet she knew what she had been doing ever since joining the Evil Queen. The woman quickly closed the distance between them as a gloved hand wrapped around her neck as the tip of a hidden blade uncomfortably sat at the base of her throat.

The savior never felt fear like this before, but this was coming from someone she thought as family. But then she had to remember that this was the Black Widow. Not Amelia.

The Black Widow that protected her mother at every turn and her big mouth had just nearly compromised that protection. Emma stood completely frozen as the woman's mouth hovered over her ear.

"Be fortunate that these guards fear me far more than the Queen, otherwise those words would be the last you would ever say in this world" the Widow whispered in her ear "If you really are an ally of Snow's then I would keep that mouth of your shut for as long as you're here, otherwise it won't be the Queen I would be worried about. Do you understand?"

"I do" Emma whispered before the hidden blade was taken away from her neck allowing her to breath again.

"Lady Amelia" a voice Emma recognized before he saw him. Looking away from the assassin she looked up to see Graham walking towards them with a letter in his hand in leather armor and a sword strapped to his waist.

At her name being called the assassin turned around to see the heartless huntsman that the Queen insisted on keeping around approach them. She couldn't help but stare at the man in front of them, her eye's stung from the salty tears that threatened to fall.

"What word do you bring Huntsman?" she asked as the heartless huntsman handed out the note to her.

"This came from Senu, while you were away" handing the Assassin the parchment she opened the letter and quickly read through its contents forgetting about the prisoner behind her.

Amelia looked to the guards as Graham looked at the blonde seeing straight through her "Take her to her to the dungeons, don't bother being gentle" with a tug of her arms the guards took her past the Assassin and Huntsman.


Emma grunted as she was thrown into her jail cell landing on her hands and knees as the door to her cell was locked shut behind her.

"Are you alright?" a feminine voice said from the cell to the right of Emma's cell. The left of her cell sat a well built man with long swept hair and full well kept beard stared off into the distance from the corner of his cell.

"Yeah, I think so. Thanks" Emma replied getting the dirt off her hand "I'm Leia" she introduced herself using the bars to stand up.

"I wish I could say, it was nice to meet you" the woman replies.

"Yeah, but under the circumstances, I get it" Emma tells her "What's your name?".

"I dare not speak in here" the woman whispers "The Queen doesn't know who I am. My silence is the only thing keeping my family safe".

"What about him?" Emma says glancing towards the man who hadn't even acknowledged her presence as he continued to stare at nothing.

"He hasn't said anything since the Queen captured him. She told him she killed his wife"

"She's pretty ruthless, huh?" she didn't get a reply from either of her cell mates as she found the bread that Amelia had thrown at her "Here" she says offering it to the woman "Are you hungry? I swiped it of a food tray on my way down".

The prisoner stands up and takes the roll from the blonde. As she steps in to the light she finally recognizes the woman from the day before. The woman notices Emma's surprised look.

"What? What is it?" the woman asks her.

"I saw you in the village" Emma turned to the man who hadn't moved "And him. With the Queen. I wanted to help but-".

"It's alright. If you had tried to free us you'd just ended up in here a day sooner" the woman tried to reassure the blonde.

"What did she put you in here for?".

"I knew where Snow White was hiding, I refused to tell the Queen. I was waiting to meet a friend of my husbands, but she never showed up when the Queen did".

"You gave up your freedom to ensure Snow White's?".

The woman nods "Yeah. I believe her to be innocent".

"How long are you in for?".

"Same as you. Just one more night".

"Really? One night? Why? Is Regina going soft?".

"No" the woman corrected her "One night, because tomorrow everyone in here is to be executed".


She needed to find that book. The gaps in her memory was annoying her and now Robin needed her help, he didn't go into too much detail of what happened, but it was an emergency. She had a Brotherhood codex page she had brought here for Regina to use. It was a potion that would retrieve forgotten memories, so she was searching everywhere in the chambers in the palace for it before she went to find Robin in Sherwood Forest.

"What the are you doing to my room" Regina voice shrill went through the Assassin's chambers as she found the red head herself knelt in front of the trunk with paper's littered everywhere.

"Some of my memories have seemed to have gone missing" as Amelia gave up, gathering the paper and dumping it back into the trunk.

"Where did you leave them? under your bed?" the Queen retorted.

"I'm trying to find something to bring them back" Amelia explained as she stood up to meet the Queen in the middle of the room "I was in The Rooks yesterday and somehow ended up near King Midas castle in time for the stupid royal engagement celebration".

Regina rolled her eyes at Amelia's displeasure of the pomp and circumstance "I knew I should've taken the Huntsman with me" Regina drawled out "At least I could've made him enjoy it".

"Why you keep the huntsman around I will never know".

"Jealous?" Regina raised a curious brow.

"Of him?" Amelia scoffed "you still seem to find a way back to my chambers after a night with him, its him who should be ashamed of himself for not satisfying his Queen" Regina grabbed the front of the Assassins robe and captured the red head's lip with hers. Ever since that drunken night a few months ago she had not been able to keep her hands off the Assassin ever since.

Regina had managed to catch Amelia's split lip with the edge of her teeth making Amelia jerk back "Your little tease about your tongue won't go unpunished dear" the Queen tells her.

"Never said it would" Amelia kissed the Queen back with equal vigor biting the other woman's lower lip until she pulled her lips away earning a growl of annoyance from the Queen "I've been called away"

"Can't you just ignore the imp's request this time" the Queen whined.

"You know I can't" Amelia pulled herself away from the Queen as she grabbed her leather satchel from her bed forgetting about the memory potion for the time being.

"Be careful at least, last time you came back after a task for him you nearly lost your eye"

"Always Your Majesty" Amelia bowed before the Queen before she jumped out of her window into the bale of hay that had been kept under her window for emergencies and quick getaways, she still never understood how a cart of hay cushioned her fall. She supposed she would never know.


He had been looking at the blonde woman for the last hour or so as she sat at the back of her cell holding something in her in her hands. The guard had come and gone with a bowl of slop for them to eat until their ultimate demise.

"What's that?" he spoke for the first time his two cell mates looked up at him in surprise hearing the guy speak for the first time since his imprisonment "In your hands".

For the first time since coming down Emma finally got a good look at the man that had been arrested. Even in the dim light she could see his features. He was tall and broad shouldered with arms that looked like they could literally rip a tree trunk in half with his bare hands. His dirty blond hair was long enough for it to be swept back off his face as a thick beard that covered his chiseled jaw and mouth.

Underneath the unkempt appearance he was a handsome man. His strong physic along would make any man think twice about taking him on in a fight, but by the look of his clothes he had been in a few fights in his time. He wore a deep blue tunic that was covered in dirt with matching trousers.

But the thing that stuck out for the savior were his deep maroon boots that covered his feet and went up to his knees over the trouser legs which would make him stand out from any other man.

"I-It's my parents" she tells him "I guess you could call it their wedding ring".

"And they entrusted you with it?" the woman asked from the other side of her cell.

"Sort of. I need to get it back to them" Emma tells them.

"Being away from family is a terrible thing" the man tell her as he rubs his fingers through his thick beard. He spoke like he knew what that was like.

"Yeah, it is".

"The longer I'm separated from them" the woman supplied "the pain doesn't dull. It worsens. Maybe, cause I know I'll never see them again".

"Where's yours?" Emma asked the man, she wanted to keep him talking, he looked complete hopeless the first time she saw him.

"My son was taken from us and now my wife is dead. The Queen killed her". he answered her.

"I'm sorry" Emma sympathized with the man.

He was in a similar situation Amelia had found herself in, her husband killed and her son taken away from her "If my mom was here she would tell me to have hope. Maybe, you should, too. Who knows, maybe you will end up with them again".

"I don't think so. I'm fairly certain, they already think that I'm dead" the woman tells her "And soon that'll be true" the woman answered Emma notices a spoon lying on the ground in her cell a wire had been coiled around the handle holding pieces of wood together.

"Maybe not. Give me your spoon" the woman complies with the blonde's request as the blonde man watches as the blonde closely as she entwines a wire around both spoons shaping it to a tool.

"What are you doing?" he asks her.

"It's all about the tumblers" the blonde whispered whispered to herself as they eyed the padlock that kept the chains tightly wrapped around her cell door.

The man watches as she inserts the wire into the padlock the same way his wife used to. She had done it so many times. After a few more moments the woman unlocked the padlock and opens the door to her cell.

"You did it" the other woman exclaims from her cell in excitement seeing the blonde being able to free herself.

Jumping up from his spot, he rushed to the front of his cell to see the woman simply walk out before turning around to face the pair that were about to be killed for no reason at all.

Confusion grew on the man's face as he sa how she was hesitating to run as fast as she could.

"What are you waiting for?" he told her stood at the bars "Go!" he yells at her waving his arm through he bars "Get out of here! Go!".


Meanwhile, while Emma was panning her own escape. Hook had planning her rescue since he saw the woman in the Black Widow's clutches. With the help of Red and Prince James the plan was coming together as the Prince took down the knight that had been guarding the cells as he was being distracted by Snow's closest friend Red, in her wolf form.

They had been lucky when they saw the Black Widow herself charging down the Queen's road on horseback heading toward Sherwood Forest. Otherwise they would've had to think twice about this particular plan that saw them sneak into the castle knowing her gift would've found them at a moments notice.

"I'm glad the wolf is on our side" Hook says as he throws the cloak on Red making her turn back to her human form,

"She's a fearsome one." Charming agrees with 'Charles' as he sheaths his sword "Better hurry. When he awakes, they'll be onto us" they take a step towards the cells only to be halted by Red's warning

"Wait. Someone is coming" she tells the men as Hook.

Hook draws his sword ready for the approaching enemy only for to be met by Emma and her cellmates as they came to sudden stop seeing the sword pointed at them. "Swan?" Hook recognized the blonde in front of him with a relieved smile.

"Hook" Emma retorted happy to see him.

"What the hell are you doing? You're depriving me of a dashing rescue" Hook accused Emma teasingly with a smile.

"The only one who saves me is me. Speaking of which" Emma says as she slips the ring off her finger "I'm not gonna be around much longer unless we find where this belongs" she said holding up the ring.

"I think that belongs to me" Charming claimed the ring, only for Emma to quickly change the subject.

"You guys have a way out of here?" Emma retorted.

"Follow us" Red spoke up "Snow told us where to meet her" nodding at the werewolf the man and woman behind her follow on behind them only to stop in front of the blonde that had saved the

"Thank you, Leia" the woman tells her as the man give her an appreciative nod in thanks.

Hook looked at Emma after recognizing the pair from the village. Instead of following on the pirate lagged behind to speak with her "Swan, you didn't" he started. In the background Charming hung back seeing Leia and Charles

"They were going to be executed in the morning. I couldn't just leave them there to die" she explained to him.

"Actually, if they die, they pretty much have to" Hook corrects her.

"I hate to break up a reunion" Charming interrupted the pair "but we have to keep moving. We have to find Snow White".


After thinking Snow had died at the hands of the Evil Queen. Emma sat with Hook on a log as they watched Snow thank Red for helping the previous night, sending the werewolf on her way before the bandit approached Charming as he drank the remaining water from his canteen

"I suppose I should thank you" Snow started "You saved me".

"Well, it seemed like the honorable thing to do" he replied.

"I'm going to the stream to get some water. I can fill you canteen, if you'd like" she offered the Prince.

He hands her his bottle with a smile "Thanks".

"They're warming up to each other" she observes "This is good. This'll work" Emma said to Hook as they overheard their parents conversation.

"That may be, Swan. But we have another problem" Hook nods towards Emma's former cellmates, the woman sat on the log as the well-built man shook the Princes hand thanking him for helping with his breakout.

"I had to save them" she tells him.

"Sure, you did the noble thing, but they're supposed to be dead. Their presence in the Enchanted Forest could have unforeseen consequences".

"She's just a sweet, innocent woman. And he just needs help to mourn his family" Emma pleaded with the pirate next to her.

"What, if she had a child who grows into a mass murderer? Or he gets tipsy some night and rides his horse into one of the dwarf's and there are only six of them? Who knows? We're best not finding out. They don't belong here" Hook reiterates.

"I know exactly what we can do. Take them with us" she suggests to the man.


"The future?" the woman questioned her saviors as she stood next to the men that was once imprisoned with her with an equally baffled look in his face.

"Well you both can't stay here" Emma sighed in frustration "You were supposed to die hours ago".

"I don't understand. I just wanna get back to my family" the woman protested.

"They need to believe you're dead. Because that's what they've always thought" Hook tells her.

"Trust us" Emma pleads with the woman.

"All due respect, Ma'm" the man finally spoke up for pair of them, he's deep authoritative voice made Emma and Hook look towards him "We don't trust you" he tells them holding up his chin with a new air of confidence about him "Or believe you. So, unless you're kidnapping us, I'm going to help her find her family" the woman give him an appreciative smile before he suddenly fall forward unconscious, his heavy body hitting the forest floor making the woman whirl around to see Emma a small log in her hand.

"Wha-" nothing else escaped her mouth as Emma swing the log around again making contact with the woman's head making her fall forward into Hook's arms.

"Well, then, I guess we're kidnapping you" Emma said dropping the piece of wood.

Hook chuckles at Emma's actions "I always knew there was a little pirate in you, Swan".

Charming approaches them noticing the pair that they had rescued along with Leia on the floor out cold "What happened to them?".

"Resting".

"Has either one of you seen Snow? She went to the stream but she hasn't-" He quickly searches his pocket "The ring. She took it" Charming realizes in horror.

"Really?" Emma spoke up "Do you know where she might be headed?".

"She was seeking passage on a pirate ship. There's only one way to get to the harbor from here. The Troll Bridge" Charming swung his back onto his shoulder and left the three to run after the bandit.

"Oh no" Emma suddenly realized as she started to follow Charming, only for Hook to stop her.

"Swan, wait. The bridge. Isn't that where you want them to be? Isn't that where Snow saved your father from the trolls?".

"Yes, but the only reason she was able to do that was because she had a weapon. The dust" she points out to the man.

"Which she's already used on herself" Hook said out load "Bloody hell".

"Come on" she sighed "They're gonna need help".


Storybrooke

Present

After a short stay in the Dark One's Vault, Emma and Hook had finally returned to their present after putting the former's parents back on true love's course. Rumpelstiltskin had recreated to get them back to their time.

The portal spat the four travelers out of it's vortex making them ungracefully land on the barn floor before closing behind them.

Hook was the first to push himself up off the floor before helping Emma up to her feet. Glancing towards her former cellmates that she had knocked out to get them to come to the future with them, she saw they had started to wake up from their forced sleep as they tried to make sense of their new surroundings.

""Hey, do me a favor. Fill her in. Make sure, they don't freak out" Emma tells him.

"Where are you going?" the pirate asks her.

"I have some people I need to see" at that Emma limped her way out of the barn. She needed to find her family. She was home.


Walking down main street with smiles on their faces and their future ahead of them, the newly united assassin and former Queen walked hand in hand towards Granny's to continue the celebrations with their family.

As they made towards the diner the assassin couldn't help but let herself remember this moment as the moment she could finally let herself be happy with the woman she loved. She had her soulmate and her son. That's all she needed to go on with.

As they neared the diner the redhead made them stop under the archway that leading up to the diner as they both leaned in for a passionate kiss under the night sky. Pulling away from the kiss a thought passed through the redhead's mind as she thought over the last week or so since they had returned from the Enchanted Forest

"Do you know what I just realized?" Amelia started.

"What?".

"You found me" Amelia quoted with a wicked smile on her face, earning a slap on her shoulder form the brown eyed woman, who laughed at her joke.

"You're very welcome dear" Regina chuckled out "but please don't make it a habit it".

"No promises Queenie" she replied as they started to make their way towards the diner.

Upon entering the diner Amelia found Tom sat with the Charming couple and Henry listening to the young Mill's boy continuing to read his newly names Uncle his grandparents story.

The redhead made a diversion toward's the booth Robin was sat with Roland as she appeared next to Roland

"Hey stranger" the redhead greeted the thief making him look up at her. They hadn't had a chance to talk about what had happened. The man looked at her with a friendly smile that didn't quite meet his eyes.

"Hello" he greeted her back "Have you told her?" he asks her referring to the kiss they had shared before the curse had been broke.

"No" she tells him "And I'm not going to"

"You've changed" he suddenly tells her, making her think back to the moment on the road towards the Dark Palace a year ago.

"I have" she simple replies.

"Because of her" he says glancing towards the former Queen who was speaking to Emma.

"Because of you" she corrects her "You showed me that even in my darkest days I could still be loved by a good man like you. That I could still love someone like you, even when I didn't think I deserved it. You stuck by my side while I made all the wrong choices. I repaid your good heart by sending you away when I needed you the most" she admits to the man on opposite side of the table.

Finding his hand on the table she gently gripped hand feeling the familiar warmth that came from them.

"Remember when I told you about those lesson's I had to learn" he nods at her looking straight into her eyes "I'm still learning. I would love to have my best friend by my side when I learn a few more"

A smile grew on the thief's face as it reached his eye's this time "Always Milady".

"Yeah!" Roland suddenly exclaimed making the pair jump as he reached his own hand found their joined ones as he placed it on top making the pair laugh at his antics.


Elsewhere in the diner the Queen's entrance didn't go unnoticed by wither of Emma's former cellmates awaiting their execution by the woman, as they looked up from the drinks the blonde had supplied for them after their time-travel.

"That's the Evil Queen" the woman stated in fear of seeing the woman that almost killed her, making the man follow her to see the woman himself as anger coursed through his body.

"It's okay" Emma tried to reassure her former cellmates "She's different now. She's not the same person anymore. You'll see. I'll- Just stay here" she instructs them before making her way to the former Queen.

"I'm not staying here" the man stood from his seat slamming his porceiln mug on the counter "She killed my wife in cold blood"

"Mate-"Hook tried to stop the man before he storms out back, the pirate looked to the woman "Stay here" before going after the man.

"Regina" Emma stated to the woman as she approached her. There's something you should know. I brought someone back from the past" Emma announced to Regina gaining Amelia attention from next to Roland.

"This woman, she still thinks of you as..." Emma struggles for the right word.

"Evil" Regina supplied.

Emma nods "I'll bring her over. I already told her that it's okay, but it's a little delicate. And I feel like, if she met you, she'll see...".

"I understand" the former Queen tell her kindly.

Letting go of Robin's hand she stand from the booth to stand by her Queen as she watches the blonde walking towards the back of the diner, having heard what she had just told the woman.

"Everything okay?" Amelia whispered to the Queen getting a small nod in reply.

"Regina, I would like you to meet..." Emma started to introduce making Amelia look up to see a ghost from her past.

"Marian" Amelia gasped seeing the woman alive on front of her.

Hearing his wife's name from the assassin Robin stood up to see where Amelia was looking to see his dead wife "Marian?" he gasps in surprise.

"Robin?" Marian gasped in disbelief seeing her husband again.

Engulfing the thief in a tight embrace the assassin's mouth gaped in disbelief as she heard Robin speak "I thought you were dead" His voice thick with emotion "I thought I'd never see you again".

"And I you" Marian replies.

Looking towards her soulmate the former Queen couldn't quite put a finger on how the redhead was feeling at that moment thinking she had been responsible for her death years ago. And yet somehow thought Emma and Hook's meddling in the past, she was now alive and well again as she watched the woman reunite with her young son.

She felt like she couldn't breath as all sound seemed to filter out of her mind as she watched Roland reunite with her mother. She had no idea why she felt like this but she needed to get out of this room as soon as she could.

Moving past her soulmate as she headed for the door only for a voice she thought she would never hear again call her back into the room as a hushed silence came over the crowd as they watched the assassin freeze and slowly turn around to see the man that she had as seem being pushed into the sea.

"John"


AN: Yay! We made it! I admit, that did take a while.

Season 4 here we come!

Big thank you to all the new follower and a quick shout out to DottieGame for your kind words. And I'm glad you enjoyed the small Easter Egg.

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