AN: Welcome to Season 2 of The Portrait for Elijah Mill's.
A big THANK YOU to everyone that has followed and added this story to their favourites. And a really appreciate the positive feedback so far. I love reading them. This story literally wouldn't be anything without your continued support.
For reference, Elijah's look for the start of Season is remaining as Daniel Gilies portrayal of Elijah Mickelson from The Vampire Diaries Season 2 (For the time being wink*wink).
Enjoy the chapter!
He didn't hear the beating of drums in his ears this time as he woke up to find himself on the concreate ground of the hospital parking lot, instead the smell of burning flesh reached his nose, before the sizzle was heard. Not long after that, the skin on his face and hands felt like they were on fire that made him groan out in pain before the blood curdling scream escape his lips as his natural instant's told him to get out of the sunlight.
In a flash the principle found himself back in the hospital as those around him gasped at his sudden appearance as nurses and porters came a stop to see the Evil Queen's younger brother in the middle of the entrance with angry burnt skin covering his face and hands as the bubbling blisters and burns slowly healed themselves, but not completely.
That's when the drums started. The sound of a hundred drums drowned out all his pain as his mind focused on one feeling.
Hunger
The people that watched him turned into faceless blood bags as he listened to the hundreds of heartbeats that pumped the life sustaining blood around their body as he felt the skin under his eye's tingle, pearly white fangs descended from the top of his mouth as deep pants' left his mouth, trying and failing, to control himself from draining every person in this hospital to satisfy the last twenty-eight years of going without.
"Run" he simply ordered them. In a split second the people around him started to run in different directions only for the vampire to quickly appear in front of a male porter in his white unstained uniform as his eye's met his pair of terrified ones.
Grasping the man's neck the vampire easily lifted him from the ground his blood bag tried to pull the strong vampire off him only to struggle against the creature's immense show of strength.
"Don't move or make a sound" he ordered the stocky porter as his eyes' dilated before the man stopped fighting him and relaxing in his hold an instant later allowing the vampire to let go of his neck before diving fang first into his jugular finding the sweet spot that allowed him to control the flow of blood that entered his mouth and into his stomach where it quelled the fire that had raged.
Closing his eyes as he continued to take in gulps full of blood, he focused on the drumming of the human's heartbeat as it became slower and slower until it stopped altogether. Forced himself to stop his long-awaited feed, the male porter fell onto the floor in as his world spun as he reached up to plug pincered holes in his neck that continued to haemorrhage through his fingers.
Blinking out of his hunger fuelled haze the principle came back to the surface to see what he had done. He nearly killed him.
"I'm sorry" he breathed down to the man on the floor as he found his handkerchief in the breast pocket of his suit to help the man on the floor only for the human to flinch back in fear using what little energy, he had to push himself away from the vampire making Elijah think twice about trying to help him "I'm sorry" he told the man again as
The drumming around him only grew louder as heard people rushing around on the floor's above him in panic to get away from him, their heartbeats pushing more oxygen around their bodies, making the fire that had been quelled reignite tenfold, roaring out to find to continue his feed until he had drained every last person in the building. Including the ones he cared about still upstairs.
He needed to leave.
Now.
Rushing to the entrance with his enhanced speed, the principle stopped short of the sunlight that streamed through the glass doors onto the floor. He was hindered by the daylight now. He needed his ring if he had any chance for surviving in this new uncursed world as a creature of the night. He just needed to get there first.
Pulling his suit jacket over his head and shoulders, the man did his best to cover his face and head from the sunlight before stepping into the light. Hissing in pain the vampire made himself walk closer the automatic doors as he felt his legs and body start to burn even underneath his clothes. The second the door's opened the vampire pictured where he needed to go before blurring out of the hospital to his home.
Magic.
She knew what the cloud of purple smoke straight away as it hurtles towards her home stood at the window of her son's bedroom. Which meant only one thing to her. She had her power back. She could get her son back from Emma and those pecky royals that would have their memories back. But more importantly she would be able to get her brother to speak to her again. Even if she made him listen to reason.
He needed to be cursed for his own good in this new world. To give him a fresh start somewhere new as a human. Not the creature he was turned into by Lord Wotton. And it had worked, he was happy with life in Storybrooke, with a job he loved with the addition of Henry to help raise. But then Emma had to come a ruin all that for him.
The pounding on her front door brought her out of her thoughts as she turned away from the window as she heard her brother's muffled yells reach her ears.
"Regina!" Elijah's voice yelled out to her as the pounding continued "Regina let me in!".
Furrowing her brows in confusion the Queen made her way down the stairs as his yells and pounding got louder as she became more confused to why her brother simply didn't walk in. He had keys.
"Ahh!" he suddenly yelled out in pain as she literally saw smoke through the paned window's either side of the door followed by a "Let me in!".
"No" she breathed out hurrying her steps towards the door to wrench it open to see her little brother's burnt face as blisters covered his face and hands as he sheltered himself from the sunlight on her porch.
"No" she echoed to herself in disbelief as she saw the dried blood that smeared his mouth and chin.
"Invite me in" he pressed her to follow his instruction.
"W-what? H-how?" she stammered, questioning how he could be like this again.
"Invite me in!" he repeated himself only louder over his sister's questioning, he didn't have time for this.
"Come in!" she yelled back. Those two words lifted the invisible barrier that stopped him stepping into his own home as he sped into the house tripping on the step in the foyer in his scramble to get out of the sun, leaving the vampire to fall onto the marble black and white floor as his skin continued to sizzle despite being indoors out of the sunlight.
Shutting the door quickly the Queen quickly followed her brother only for the principle to quickly jump to his feet and blur up the stairs leaving the Queen to hear her banging and crashing around in his room above her. Stepping forward to go find him she was stopped as more demanding pounding was heard from her front door making her whirl around, to hear an unwelcome voice on the other side this time, accompanied by others.
"Open up! Open up, or we're coming in!" Dr. Whale yelled enraged through the door demanding her attention seeing his face flash by in the paned windows.
Mustering a smile on her face the Queen opened her front door once again to be met by Dr. Whale stood in the middle of her porch with a mob of residents behind him, all looking for her.
"Can I help you?" she sweetly asks the Doctor stood in front of her with a confident smirk.
"That smirk isn't going to last forever, Regina" Whale tells her "You took everything from us and now..".
"What?" she interjects "Now you're going to kill me?".
"Eventually" he answers her "But first you need to suffer".
"Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us" she replies pushing Dr. Whale hard in the chest until he was off her front porch, before looking out at the crowd that had been corralled to overthrow her "That's right. You wanted to see your Queen? Well my dears. Here..She.. Is".
Throwing out her hands towards the mob, the Evil Queen attempts to inflict her powerful magic upon the mob making them flinch back in fear, only for nothing to happen.
"She's powerless!" someone in the crowd shouted in realisation as Regina looked down at her hands in bewilderment as it dawned on her that she was hopelessly outnumbered "Let's get her""Get her!""Don't let her get away!" shout's reverberated through the mob as they closed down on her.
She was forced up against a white pillar of her porch by as he reached up to wrap his hands around her neck to choke the life out of her only for something hard met his chest as he was sent tumbling backwards off the porch once again into the mob behind him away from the powerless Queen as he was kept on his feet by the mob behind him.
Looking up to the source of the force, he looked up and saw Elijah Mill's stood there in his suit and tie with no sign of his previous feeding wiped from his lips. His older sister couldn't help the wicked smirk on her lips from growing seeing her powerful brother rescuing her from the mob. She knew he would forgive her, like he always did.
Stepping forward with his daylight ring sat comfortably on the middle finger of his right hand present the man overlooked the mob that had gathered outside his home as he heard their hearts beating in their chests tempted to drain every single one of them, starting with the good Doctor himself for attempting to attack his family.
"Do forgive me Doctor" Elijah's voice broke through the hushed silence in front of him "But if anyone here is to teach my sister a lesson on good manners. It's me" he tells the man before turning his attention to the mob.
"Good morning" Elijah addresses the mob in his front yard as he straightened out his suit jacket with a strong clear voice "I trust I need no introduction" he goes on knowing everyone here knew of him and what he could do "After all. This is my family home. If I so much as find a trace of you within its borders in the next three minutes, it will not end well for you" a quiet mummer thrummed through the crowd as the contemplated the vampire's silent threat.
"That is all. Run Along" he dismissed the mob with a dismissive flick of his hand as he turned to face his sister only for his words to go unheard by the resident doctor that stood his ground against the siblings as Elijah turned back to see that the mob hadn't moved.
"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear" he pauses looking at their 'ringleader' "This is a threat".
"You can't beat all of us Elijah" Whale tells him, only to earn a hint of a smile to play on his lips at the man gall.
"In precisely two minutes time your little hunting party will become the prey. Now based on your recent failure to subdue my powerless elder sister. This despite the better than one hundred to one advantage. I recommend you heed my warning. I won't ask again".
Turning his back on the mob to escort his sister back inside their home. Dr. Whale had other idea's as he reached out once again to grab Regina only to find himself pressed up against the white pillar this time with Elijah's hand wrapped around his neck, feeling the vampire's strength as he felt his throat as Elijah held him at arm's length as no-one came to save him.
"Are you challenging me?" he questioned the man as the Charming family forced themselves through the crowd to stop the mob from killing the Queen.
"Let her go! Let her go!" he heard familiar voices call out to him before Emma broke through to the front only to see Regina not the one in immediate danger but Whale, being held up by his neck by Elijah of all people.
"Elijah! Let him go!" Emma exclaimed at the man.
"Why should I?" he questions her request keeping his gaze firmly fived on the man he held in his hand. He could kill him right now, snap his neck with a simple squeeze of his hand. But no, he wanted the man to suffer for his hand in everything that had happened to him and his sister in the past "He's trespassing on private property. Threating to harm my sister" he lists off the man's crimes "He's a deplorable example of the human species. A parasite, that needs to be eviscerated root to stem".
"Because I am still the Sheriff!" she yelled at him "Like you wanted "
She wasn't sure what had happened to him since he woke up from his curse, but this wasn't the man she had gotten to know since arriving in Storybrooke.
"And because she saved you" David tells him joining his daughter at the front of the crowd "All of you!" he adds aiming it at the mob behind him.
"And because no matter what Regina did, it does not justify this" Mary Margaret tried to reason with her step-uncle as Henry watched his Uncle hurting the man.
"We are not murderers here" Emma tried to convince them further tugging at his arm to force him off Whale only to not make any difference whatsoever.
"We're not from this world" he darkly reminded the blonde.
"Yeah, well, you're in it now" she snapped at the Principle as a small but strong voice snapped the vampire out of his red haze.
"Elijah!" Henry yelled his voice rang through Elijah's ear's. Above the Doctor's drumming heartbeat and the others as he looked down to see his nephew behind held in his grandmother's arms, as he finally released Dr. Whale's neck allowing the man to gasp for air and stumble back off the porch to re-join the mob.
"Henry" he breathed out seeing his nephew stood there as Whale stepped forward to get to Elijah again only for David to put himself in between the Doctor and the Vampire knowing the man wouldn't get a third chance to try and harm either him or his sister.
"Okay, Whale. We're done" he tells the Doctor standing his ground against him.
"Back off!" Whale warned the Prince "You're not my Prince" he states to the man.
"Who are you, Whale?" David questions him.
"That's my business" Whale states making the Prince scoff.
"Well, my business is making sure this town doesn't go to hell" the former Shepherd tells him "So, whether or not I'm your prince, isn't the issue. We have a lot to figure out, and this isn't the way to do it".
"And Regina's death won't provide any answers" the prince's wife preached as she stepped up on the porch between the siblings to speak to the mob "She needs to be locked up. For her safety and, more importantly, for ours" Mary-Margaret proposed to the crowd.
"What about him?" Whale pointed towards the principle who hadn't given the Doctor the satisfaction of looking at him "He needs to be locked up along with her".
"Yeah!" "Lock him up!" "Bloodsucker!" "Leach!" the crowd reverberated back in agreement as Elijah simply smiled in amusement at the words that were being spat towards him.
"He hasn't done anything" Emma tried to argue.
"Really Sheriff?" Whale spat at the last word at her "He attacked my staff in the hospital. Nearly killed him!".
Looking at the man in the suit he didn't even try and deny Whale's accusation as she remembered the chaos the hospital that ensued shortly before they left to find her parents. There were people running away from something until she, Henry and Mother Superior reached the ground floor to see a male porter being aided by nurses holding a bloody rag to his neck.
The piece of information made the royal couple look towards the Queen for an answer only to be met with silence. She knew he was a vampire again.
"That was you?" she questioned him. She didn't need him to answer her as she saw the look that told her everything. He did hurt him. But why?.
"Emma" her mother's voice made her turn to look at her instead of Elijah "If that's true, then we need to do what they ask. I know this is a lot to take in right now, but it's best for everyone here".
"Your mother's right Emma" David spoke up next "You don't know him like we do".
Know him how? She wanted to ask; this wasn't making any sense to her. What had happened to him since the curse had broken.
"Fine" she relented "He can go in the cell next to her".
Stepping into his cell voluntarily along with his sister next to his, the door shut closed behind him as Emma locked the door behind him as the Prince locked the Queen behind bars. The man hadn't said a word to the blonde Sheriff since leaving the large home, which only irritated the woman further to know what would push the man to attack the male staff member in the hospital, so much so to lose so much blood.
"So, I'm a prisoner now" the dark-haired woman stated to the newly-united family on the other side as her brother in cell to her right decided to make himself more comfortable in their home for the foreseeable future as he shrugged his suit jacket off his shoulders to neatly place on his cot before taking a seat.
"The curse is broken. Why didn't we go back?" the Prince questioned the Queen straight away wanting answers to why they didn't go back home as soon as the curse broke.
"Because there's nothing to go back to. That land is gone" she tells them.
Looking towards her friend and ex-fiancé in the other cell the former Princess looked to see if he knew anything that might help him only to remember what Blue had told her earlier. He had been cursed as well. He was also unpredictable. He could easily let himself out of his cell but instead he paid no mind to them as he stared forward with a straight face.
"We should get to Gold" Mary-Margaret suggested to her true love before the family filed out of the stations with the pixie haired Princess looking back at the man who was choosing to stay in his cell.
Once alone the Queen turns her attention to the lock on the cell door trying once again to use her magic to escape her imprisonment only for a scoffed chuckle behind her to distract her as she turns to see her baby brother looking straight at her
"Aren't you going to help me?!" .
He could get them out of there. These bars would crumble if he put even the smallest of effort into breaking them.
"I seem to recall telling you that I would no longer be by your side whatever the outcome of Henry's curse. And here we are".
"They why did you help me then? Would could've let them kill me, instead you stopped them".
"Because despite my better judgment, you're still my sister. So if anyone was to put an end to your life. It would be by my hand".
Scoffing at her brothers empty threat the Queen turned back tot he lock reaching out to use her magic to unlock it, but fails. Again.
"Magic is different here, dearie" A voice they both new chimed in, the pair of siblings turned to see Rumplestiltskin limp out of the shadows to gaze upon the King and Queen of Storybrooke in their separate cells.
"I noticed" the Queen states to the sorcerer "I assume this is all your doing".
"Most things are" he tells them stepping towards the cells as Elijah stands from his cot to meet the man at the front of his bars as the older man looked towards the vampire "However seeing your dear little brother transition back into a creature of the night. Was an added bonus".
"Get to it, Rumple" The Queen tells him growing tired at his attempts to antagonise them "What do you want? You're here to finish the job?".
"No, no, no. You're both safe from me" he assures them.
"I feel so relieved" Elijah comments sarcastically from the door of his cell.
"I made a promise to someone that I won't kill either of you".
"Who could elicit that from you?" The Queen asks him.
"Belle" Gold answers her.
"She's alive" she feigned surprise.
"You are a dreadful liar" the sorcerer seethed at the woman "At least your brother has the decency not to lie to me after all these years".
"I could've killed her, but I didn't" she goads him as Elijah remined silent.
"Yeah, you did much worse than that" the older man tells her stepping closer towards her cell door "You kept her alive, so you could kill her when it suited you. A fate worse than death. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I've got in store for you".
Grabbing Regina's arm and pulling through the bar far enough for the man to press the medallion he had found in the back of his shop into the palm of her hand, marking her.
"Is that…".
"Yes, dearie" he confirms to the Queen "The one thing no one can escape . Destiny. And, I promise, yours is particularly unpleasant".
Snatching her arm and hand back the Queen cradled the hand with the other as Elijah reached through their shared bars to see what the Dark One had cursed her with only to see nothing there, making his brow's furrow in confusion.
"Ohhhh" the Dark One jeered through the bars making the look up to see him dangling the medallion in his hand.
"Consider yourself a very lucky man Master Mill's" Gold voice brought his gaze up the man "The kindness you showed Belle has saved you form the same fate as your sisters".
With those parting words the sorcerer left the siblings to think over what they had done. He was feeling lucky at all. Not at all.
Hearing his sister's loud gasp in the cell next to him made the vampire wake up himself from where he sat on his cot, up against the brick wall to see her sat up on her cot as she swung her legs around to sit on the edge as she felt her palm erupt in pain as she looked to see the symbol.
"Regina" he called out to her as she jumped from his cot to cross the small cell to stand at their shared bar's "Show me".
Crossing the cell herself her brother took her hand in to his to see the symbol burnt into her hand. A Wraith. A soul sucker.
"How much?" she asked him. She was asking how much he had fed before coming home.
"Not enough" he answered her. He wasn't strong enough to beat the Wraith that was coming for them. He'd only fed enough to get him through the next few hours, a day perhaps but not enough to face the Wraith that was coming for her. Not alone at least.
Sending Henry away with Ruby was the best course of action as they moved forwards to question Mr. Gold or Rumplestiltskin about what had been happening since the curse had broken.
As the blonde saviour said goodbye to her son in Ruby's red convertible her parents watched on. The pair were eager to talk to her about her life about the questions she might have about them being who they were. Snow desperately wanted to talk to her, about everything before the curse was broken.
"Keep him safe, Ruby" Emma asks the werewolf before she pull from the curb with Henry in the passenger seat.
"Don't push it, Snow" David gently warns his wife knowing how much she wanted to speak to her grown daughter. She asked to give her time, but she didn't want to wait.
"I won't" she tells him as Emma approaches them ready to go speak to Gold.
"You guys ready?" the blonde Sheriff asks her parents.
"We need to talk" Mary Margaret suddenly tells her ignoring her husbands quiet warning.
"I… Well, I don't… I just…" the blonde stammered in surprise "I don't want to talk" she insists.
"Well, I do, okay. Gold can wait. I can't. I mean, you're my daughter, and… I want to talk to you. I know that we have talked. But, we didn't know that we were talking. And we talked about things we probably shouldn't even have talked about – one night stands and the like-".
"One night stands?" David interrupted her.
"Elijah" she quickly admits to her husband, hoping he didn't hear the name.
"Elijah?!" he exclaimed at her in disbelief "Your ex-fiancé Elijah!".
"Wait?" Emma spoke up "Ex-fiancé?" she voiced to her mother in confusion. They were engaged?. How many times had Elijah been engaged exactly?.
"We were cursed. That is neither here, nor there. And it was arranged when we were both very young" she quickly dismissed his concern as her husband continued to wrap his head around the thought that his wife had actually slept with a man like Elijah "The point is, we did not know that we were mother and daughter and, now, we do. And, so… Please, let's talk" she pleaded with her.
"Okay. What do you want to talk about?".
"We're together, finally" she beamed at her daughter and husband "And I can't help but think you're not happy about it" she observes about her daughter outload.
"Oh, I am. But, see… Here's the thing – no matter what the circumstances, for twenty-eight years I only knew one thing. That my parents sent me away".
"We did that to give you your best chance" she tells her daughter. That same thing she had to tell herself when they had to decide to send her away from the curse.
"You did it for everyone, because that's who you are. Leaders, heroes, princes, and princesses, and that's great. A-And amazing. And wonderful. But it doesn't change the fact that, for my entire life. I've been alone".
"But, if we hadn't sent you away, you would've been cursed, too" her mother weakly argued trying to spin the story.
"But we would've been together. Which curse is worse?" he asks them honestly before quickly changing the subject to the problem at hand "Come on. Let's just… Let's go find Gold" she tells them waking between them to head towards the Pawn Shop leaving her parents to watch her walk away from them.
It hadn't been long since his sister had been woken up with the symbol in her palm. It would only be a matter of time until the soul sucker came after his sister and as the light darkened outside, their time was running out. It ran out as the electricity in the building audibly cracked as the the lights flickered on and off until it cut out entirely, leaving the Queen and her Vampire brother in complete darkness.
"Hello? Who's there?" the Queen called out to the room in fear.
Feeling the temperature in the room suddenly drop, a roar vibrated from above as the dark cloaked Wraith swept down towards Regina's cells as Elijah used his strength to push the bared door until it broke from its hinges as the vampire allowed the door to fall to the ground with a heavy bang. Stepping out of his cell, his white fangs flashed in the darkness as he turned to face the creature that would harm his sister only for the Wraith to throw the door of Queen's cell straight at the vampire, taking him with it as it flew across the room.
"Elijah!" she called out to her brother as she was left with nothing stopping the Wraith from sucking the Queen's soul.
"Hey!" the Prince yelled announcing the Charming family's arrival as he threw a folded metal chair in the dark creatures back, only for the chair to ricochet back in the ballpen as Emma caught sight off Elijah lying unconscious underneath a heavy jail cell door, not moving.
"Elijah!" the blonde yelled after the man as David was thrown in her direction by the Wraith making her jump back and hide behind a desk as another was thrown back down the room with David before turning back to the Queen and continue what it was sent to do. Unaware of the former Princess sneaking up behind it with a can of aerosol and a lighter.
"Over here!" Mary Margaret shouted at the creature holding up the light in front of the aerosol, spraying fire at the creatures with the makeshift flamethrower making it cream out in pain before flying out the window.
"Elijah!" the call of his name made the vampire wake up from his involuntary nap as he felt something heavy on his chest to see the jail door he barely saw coming his way on top of him, hearing his sister violently coughing in her cell as Emma ran forward to help her off the floor.
"Elijah, are you okay?" Mary Margaret came into view as David slowly joined his wife to help him lift the cell door off the principle.
"I'm fine" the man reported to the woman, wrapping his hands around green bars to easily lift the heavy cell floor off his body, like it weighed nothing, discarding it to the side before flashing across the room to reappear in his sister's cell in time to take her hand and help her back onto her feet making the blonde Sheriff jump opposite him.
"What the hell was that thing?" the Sheriff asks the pair of siblings.
"A wraith. A soul sucker" Elijah informs her as Regina lent on him to steady her feet.
"Did I-" the teacher asked, wondering if she killed it.
"Kill it?" Regina scoffed "No, it's regenerating. It'll be back. It doesn't stop until it devours its prey" the Queen informs the family as she clutches Elijah's hand "Me" she adds holding up her branded palm.
"Then, we have a problem" Emma told the group.
"No, we don't" the prince suddenly spoke up making the siblings look at him "Regina does" David argued glaring at the Queen.
"I beg your pardon?" Elijah stated to the Prince.
"What?" Regina asked in disbelief as his wife and daughter turned towards him as Elijah steps forward to deal with the Prince himself only to feel his sister pull him back by his hand. They didn't need this right now.
"David?" Snow questioned her husband in disbelief.
"You want to let her die" Emma asked her father.
"Why not? Then it goes away and then, we're safe" he reasoned to his family.
"That's quite the example you're setting for your daughter, there" Regina sent the comment towards the Prince.
"No" David argues at the Queen's comment "You don't get to judge us!" he angrily retorts, storming towards the woman with a stern finger pointed at her only for Elijah to step in front of him with his hand met the Prince's chest, keep him at arms length from his sister.
"Take another step and I will happily remove your heart from your chest" he blankly warned the man, pushing him back as the man kept a hard gaze on the vampire he knew that was impossibly stronger than him.
"Let me ask you something Your Highness" Elijah continued "Where do you think that thing came from?".
"Gold" his sister answered for him.
"I made a promise to Henry" Emma tells her father "She's not dying" the blonde sternly tells her father making the principle suppress his lips from appearing on his face hearing the blonde's statement of heroism, impressed that she wasn't so easily swayed by her father's opinion that the villain should be sacrificed for the greater good.
Turing towards the brother and sister, the former Princess knew that the former Queen and her younger brother would know what to do as one and the other had years under his belt of dark creatures that could be conjured or that lived in the Enchanted Forest as one himself.
"If it can't be killed, what do you suggest?" the woman asks them.
"Send it somewhere it can't hurt anyone" Regina informs them.
Heading to Town Hall , Elijah followed his sister and Emma into the Town Hall to find Jefferson's Hat that would send the Wraith to their old home, the principle's cravings worsened on the way being so close the fresh blood that pumped through the veins of the people around him.
He needed something to ease them before he ripped open the Prince's jugular, which was available to him in the Mayor's office where his sister kept a supply of his favourite for long evenings going over numbers and figures for the towns and schools budget.
As Regina stood at the conference table with Emma, the blonde watched the former open a brown leather hat box, pausing from taking out the hat to turn and look at the saviour to answer a question that had played on her mind since leaving the station.
"Did Henry really ask you to protect me?" she asks Henry's birth mother.
"Yes" Emma answers her truthfully.
With her curiosity satisfied the Queen lifted the hat from the box, the blonde instantly recognised it as the hat that she was made to recreate again and again while she and Mary-Margaret had been held against their will in his house.
"The hat" the blonde involuntarily states outload "You had it all along" she states in disbelief.
"What do you mean?" Regina feigned ignorance.
"That's Jefferson's hat" she pressed the older woman.
"Who's Jefferson?".
Luckily the Queen was interrupted when her brother entered the office with a broom in one hand and the decanter of scotch she kept in the building for him and a glass in the other. Stopping at her desk Regina and Emma watched the man fill the glass nearly to the brim before downing the entire glass.
"You're drinking now of all times?" she scolds her younger brother seeing how much alcohol he was drinking at that moment in time.
"Trust me. The alternative is significantly better for everyone involved" he reminds feeling the satisfying burn of the alcohol make its way down to his stomach as the blonde sheriff watched on as he took a seat on the sofa continuing to down glass after glass to ease the cravings.
She saw how how much he was struggling to control his hunger. The early says of his 'condition' were fraught to say the least, as she and her father waited for their brother and son to grow accustomed to it. With only Henry Wotton his only guiding hand in this new world he had found himself in, with his new diet of human blood to keep him alive.
"How can Elijah help?" .
"What do you mean?" she blinked at the blonde coming out of her thoughts.
"You know...magic wise" the word still sounded foreign to her but the way he "I saw him in the station he was..-" she didn't know how to describe it but he was something. Different. Like the magic Gold had brought to Storybrooke had changed him somehow.
"He doesn't' have magic" she quickly tells the woman "Never has".
Emma's brows creased together in confusion. How could he do the things he did if he didn't have magic?. "Then how-".
She didn't get a chance to press the woman further as her parents walked into room with broom's of their own, as Mary- Margaret glanced to the man sat on the sofa in concern as she and David make their way to the table.
"Torches" the Prince announced to the group, indicating to the brooms in their hands "For when it comes back. I know it's old fashioned, but so am I".
"So" Mary Margaret speaks up "How does it work?".
"It will open a portal to our land" The Queen explained to the Charming family as she and Elijah lead them into the Town Hall with the vampire "All we have to do is send the wraith in there" she went on, as Elijah held out a helping hand towards his sister that she took to ease her down onto the floor with him.
The man had left his suit jacket back in the office, deciding to feel more comfortable in just the dark purple shirt he had changed into back home, rolled up to his elbows, without a tie, leaving the top two buttons open to fight a Wraith.
"Oh, yeah. Just that" the prince sarcastically spat at the pair as he took the broom his wife held along with the lighter from the station to set the bristles alight.
"I don't understand" Mary Margaret voiced to the older woman "I thought our land was gone?".
"It is. But, sending it to a place that no longer exists… Well, that's banishing it to oblivion" she replies pushing back her short dark hair behind her ears as she set herself to concentrate as she spun the hat to no avail as they heard a familiar whooshing ahead of them behind the set of doors as the lights above them flickered before going out completely.
Slowing rising from the ground Elijah felt the temperature in the room plummet again as his sister continued to spin the hat, the same way Jefferson did. Only to fail again.
"Regina.." Emma pressed the Queen to hurry up with the portal as the Wraith closed down on his prey.
"I'm trying!" the darked haired woman answered from the ground before the Wraith roared from the behind the doors before they burst open with a gust of wind so forceful it almost blew out the torches as the dark creature swept into the room.
Taking the torch from Emma's hand, the vampire and Prince charged toward the Wraith, sweeping the torch towards the creature in unison, it was pushed back as the men continued to keep the creature at bay while his sister turned her back on the fight to make the hat work with Emma stood behind her.
Grabbing a bottle of liquor she had found, the Princess poured the flammable liquid along the wooden banister.
"David! Elijah!" the pixie haired woman called out making the pair look back to see what she was doing.
"Go!" Elijah urged the Prince to pull the banister across the completely divide them from the other's as the vampire threw the broom in the air, to catch again, resting the pole in his palm like a javelin, the vampire used his strength to throw it towards the Wraith, hitting it's mark as the wooden shaft impales itself into the Wraith's body, making it scream out in pain.
Using the distraction the Prince pulled the banister together, setting it on fire making the Queen look back to see her brother continuing to fight the Wraith through the flames without a torch.
"Hurry!" David urged the woman on the ground, whirling around to wave the torch towards the Wraith.
"It's not working!" Elijah heard his sister complain over the flames.
"What is the problem?" Emma asks the woman hunched over the hat.
"Magic. It's different here" she quote's Gold's earlier statement.
"Now would be the time! Uhh!" David called back to the woman as he continued to fight the Wraith by himself.
Taking hold of the hat once more the Queen braced herself to spin it again as Emma crouched down beside the Queen, taking hold of her arm before she spun it again. This time a purple vortex grew from the hat as David and Elijah were thrown to the ground, opening the other's to attack.
"It's coming!" David warned them from the ground. Looking from his place on the ground Elijah saw his sister wasn't looking as the Wraith swept down to finally apprehend its prey, extinguishing the flames on the banister as it came inches from taking his sister from him.
"Regina!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as Emma saw the Wraith behind the Queen.
Jumping to his feet, the vampire used his speed, to blur over the banister just as Emma pushed her out of the way, the Wraith fall into the portal just as the vampire appeared on the other side. As the Wraith fell into the portal it reached and took hold of Emma and Elijah's ankle each, catching the vampire off guard, even with his strength he couldn't fight off the Wraith's hold on him.
Instead the vampire found the blonde's hand with his own, clutching as he could as they fell into the portal together. Wherever they ended up, he would not lose her.
"No!" Mary-Margaret and David yelled out seeing their daughter disappearing into the portal with Elijah.
"I'm not losing her again!" the former Princess yelled over the wind before jumping into the portal herself.
"Neither am I!" the Prince exclaimed along with his wife as he pulled himself up from the ground the jump over the scorched banister hoping to follow his wife and daughter, only to land hard, flat on his front, crushing the hat underneath his weight as Regina looked on to see her little brother no where to be found. He was gone.
Stood in shock, the tear's brimmed in the Queen's eye's as she tried to make sense at what had just happened. One moment she was stood in front of the hat and the next she had been pushed onto the ground with her little brother being pulled into the portal. He was gone.
"No" the Prince whispered to himself, patting the solid ground under his hands, like he was trying to find the portal again. Picking up the hat to look up at the Queen with tears in his eyes to see her staring at the floor too.
"Where are they?" he demanded to know from the Queen, as he stood back on his feet,
"I have no idea" she quickly tells him, looking up to meet his gaze.
"Are they dead?" he asks her closing the distance between them to make her take a step back.
"The curse, it destroyed all the lands" she informs him.
"Are they dead?!" he yelled in her face with angry tears running down his face in his state of grief thinking he had lost his family.
"I don't know!" she yells back in his face.
"I should've killed you myself!" he threatens her between gritted teeth he goes to touch her only for a firm hand on his chest to stop him.
"Well, then. What's stopping you?" Using her magic she viciously throw's David onto the wall behind him as vines magically protruded from the wallpaper, holding the angry Prince tightly against the wall.
"You think you're some heroic prince?" she asks him "Please" she scoffs as he struggles to breath "You're nothing but the son of a shepherd. I should've killed you when I could. And now...Now I won't make the same mistake" Regina continued to strangle David until she heard a voice from the door.
"Mom?" Whirling around she see's Henry stood there with Ruby behind him watching his adoptive mother trying to kill his grandfather.
"Henry, what are you doing here?" she asks her young son as the she-wolf keep her hands on him.
"What are you doing?" he asks her.
"Its okay. You're safe now" she tried to reassure her son as the vines disappeared around David making him fall down as Ruby left Henry's side to help the Prince back on his feet.
"W-Where's my mom and where's.." Henry started not seeing his birth mother, grandmother or Uncle in the room.
"They're gone" Regina tell him "They fell through a portal. They're… Henry. I'm sorry".
"No, you're not. You really are the Evil Queen. I don't want to see you again".
"No, don't say that. I love you" she told her son.
"Then prove it" he says "Get Emma, Elijah and Mary Margaret back. And until then, leave me, leave everyone alone" her son tells her.
"But where will go?" Regina asked her son.
"With me" David said behind her. Turning to face the Prince, without another word said the man lead his grandson and Ruby out of the Town Hall, leaving her behind without her brother to stand by her side as her world fell apart. Her brother got his wish.
Now she was truly alone.
Returning home from the Town Hall. Her home seemed larger than it did before without her son and baby brother in it. One was across town with his newly found Grandfather and her brother...well even she wasn't sure. She didn't even know if he was alive. All she knew that their land was there for him to end up in. Not that the Prince needed to know right now. She'd keep that little secret to herself for now.
Holding her her arms against her herself, the woman stepped through the darkened home. He wasn't there to protect her anymore, like he had always been. Maybe he jumped. Perhaps he had truly grown tired of her and the only way to get away from her was to jump in after Emma Swan.
Despite everything there was only two people in her life she truly loved. Her son. And her Brother. They were the only two people she needed in her life before Emma Swan showed up to ruin it all.
Family Above All. Now she knew what that meant. Her Redemption. But it didn't need to find redemption, she was fine as she was. She just wasn't sure if he was at this moment in time. Only for the answer to come to her:
His portrait.
Rushing upstairs the Queen quickly made it to her brother's bedroom door, pushing it open she was met by the mess he had made in the rush to find his daylight rings as the curtains of the windows now laid on the floor. In his desperation to keep himself out of the sunlight he had pulled them down. Books and papers littered the floor not in their usual piles as the Queen carefully made her way over to his closet.
His suits and shirt's displayed for easy access around her as she found the hidden compartment that was big enough to hide the monster from view. Reaching in, her fingers easily found the canvas that had been cut out of the frame it had sat in for decades. Taking it out and unfurling the piece she only seen hours earlier in the pawn shop, her eye's found the picture of her baby brother as an old man, cursed by Rumplestiltskin himself as he waited for his inevitable marriage to Snow White.
The portrait in this condition only meant one thing:
He was alive.
Enchanted Forest
Present
As she laid her head on her true love's unmoving chest, the Princess Aroura mourned the loss of her Prince at the hands of the Wraith that he had been cursed with, by a medallion so shortly after he found her, breaking her sleeping curse with True Love's Kiss.
Placing her love on the dias she had slept on, in the place where they would find their happily ending in, she had been left the grieve her loss by her own by the female warrior Mulan, who had been Philip's companion as they fought their way to her.
"We should leave this place" Mulan tells the Princess, returning to the young woman "It's not safe here".
"But the wraith is gone" Aurora argued as Mulan joined her at the dias.
"There's more. You need to know everything. Much has changed in our land since you've been asleep".
"It was less than a year" the Princess tells her. What could've changed so much in less than a year?".
"In a manner of speaking. You see, as you slept, and Phillip and I searched for you, something worse happened".
"What?".
"Are you familiar with Regina, the Queen?".
"Yes. I know of her brother. Elijah".
He was a common face in her kingdom. Usually spending his time with Maleficent in her castle, he and another man roamed the land, causing trouble wherever they went. An odd fellow. Her parents kept calling him the 'Young' Lord Wotton, like there was something they weren't saying.
"She cast a curse on this land. A terrible, terrible curse. It ripped everyone away to another world" the warrior tells her.
"But, we're still here".
"This corner of the land was untouched" Mulan informs her "No one knows why. But something saved us. And, for twenty-eight years, we were frozen. And then… Time started again. The terrible curse's power was weakened. Phillip and I were able to resume our search. We found you. But the land is ravished with dangers more fearsome than you can imagine. For those of us who remain, we found a safe haven. We must go there now".
The pair were interrupted when they heard a low rumble nearby, coming from the hole where the Wraith had appeared from. Unsheathing her sword the warrior rushes towards the source of the sound with Aurora following nearby to see a pile of rubble that had appeared from nowhere.
"Something's in there" the Princess frets to the warrior.
"Stay back" Mulan warns the Princess as she steps towards the rubble to investigate herself.
"What did it bring?" the Princess asks her as the warrior see's something beneath the rubble that went noticed by the Princess "What is it? What do you see?"? she continues to question the warrior.
Lifting a large piece of rubble, the warriors throw's it to the side with a grunt the warrior saw what had brought the Wraith to them in the first place that killed their Prince.
"Mulan what is that?" Aurora questions, joining Mulan to see three people in amongst the rubble wearing odd clothing. Two women and a man.
"That?" Mulan replied with clenched teeth of anger "That, is what brought the Wraith here. That's what killed our prince".
Laying on his side with his eye's shut, the vampire laid unconscious from being pulled between worlds with Emma's still firmly held in his as she laid unconscious nearby with her mother not too far away in the same state they were.
Back in the land he was made and thrived as a monster in.
AN: Yay! Big Chapter to kick off the next season of this story!.
The Vampire Lore I'll be using for this fic is that of the Vampire Diaries/ The Originals etc., but of course changed to suit OUAT and Elijah's story.
If you're already familiar to it:
Great! that you know the basics.
If not:
Don't worry. You don't need to know the show or the lore to enjoy this story. Like my other story I've changed some of the lore form Assassin's Creed to fit around OUAT so you don't have be an expert to enjoy it and it will all be explained throughout the story.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time!
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