The town hall was filled with a thick purple haze, a vortex of powerful magic, at its center: a hat. The hat spun on itself, as the four people in the room braced themselves against the magical wind that threatened to flatten them against the floor. The wraith was screaming, a loud shrill sound, it was making its way towards Regina. She bore the mark, it knew it wanted her soul. The three others held flaming broomsticks and swatted at the magical creature, attempting to push it into the portal created by the hat. It was David who succeeded in the end, a well placed swat sent the wraith flying to the center of the vortex, towards oblivion.

As the magical force pulled the creature towards itself, it struggled and lashed out, grabbing, with long dark fingers. Emma screamed in terror as the creature pulled her towards the portal. Without thinking, Regina lunged forward, grabbing the younger woman by the ankle, and feeling herself be pulled towards the center of the vortex. The two women and the wraith disappeared.

"I'm not leaving her again!" Snow White screamed, the portal was still open, a faint purple light shone from the hat. She jumped, and for a moment she feared she would fall flat in Storybrooke's town hall. Then she felt the ground give way beneath her, and a moment of pure darkness.

Emma gasped, the air had been knocked out of her lungs, and she was laying face down in what felt, and smelt, like dirt. She pushed herself to her knees, coughing as she did so, then looked around. She was on what looked like a giant beach, but there was no water in sight, the sand underfoot was dirty and brown, which explained her initial impression of dirt. She heard a groan from her right and turned to see a woman laying sprawled on the ground, her dark hair in a halo around her head. She rushed to her.

"Regina! Are you alright?" She helped her to her feet.

"I've been better" She said, dusting herself off "Where are we?"

Emma didn't have time to reply as Mary Margaret's voice alerted both of them, it sounded like it was coming from behind a large fallen log. A moment later Mary Margaret's short dark hair came into view as she pulled herself to her feet.

"Hey! Are you ok?" Emma asked, concerned

"I'm fine Emma! I couldn't let you go through that portal alone!"

"She wasn't alone" Regina commented sharply

"No, even worse. with you!" she shot back venomously.

"Enough!" Emma said "we've just fallen through a magical portal, and ended up... who knows where! and you two" he pointed to the two women

"are already fighting like children"

Regina crossed her arms and Snow turned away, but neither replied.

"Good" Emma continued "now, does anyone know where we are?"

They looked around. They had found themselves on a sprawling sand beach, it was dotted with fallen logs and leaves, on one side the sand continued further than the eye could see, on the other, in the distance, the three could see a halo of green.

"Is that a forest?" Mary Margaret asked, pointing towards it.

"I think it is" Regina said "We should head in that direction"

Snow immediately shook her head.

"No, we should head that way" She pointed to the sand dune "There's bound to be a sea that way, and we can follow the shoreline to a town"

"That's idiotic!" Regina answered immediately "we don't know how far we'd have to walk. And we don't know if there even IS a town!"

"We don't know what land we're in!" She added

"The enchanted forest, obviously!" Snow replied

"Obviously? The enchanted forest was destroyed by my curse!"

"Well clearly not, since we're standing in it!"

The two women's voices had slowly risen over the course of their argument, and they were now practically yelling at each other. Emma was more than a little annoyed.

"Stop it! Both of you!" she stood between the two "we'll just pick a way, and go that way"

"The forest could be dangerous, there could be ogres," her mother said, quickly.

"There could be ogres, if this were the enchanted forest" Regina said "But it isn't, so no ogres"

"Let's flip a coin" Emma said, to which the other two groaned in unison. "Heads, we go with Mary Margaret's plan, tails, Regina's" She said before either could protest again.

The blonde quickly pulled out a coin from her pocket, then flipped it, she slapped the coin onto her arm, the other two leaned forward to see the result. Heads. Regina shook her head.

"Well, you two are free to go wherever you like. I'm going that way" She pointed towards the faint green halo, then began to walk. Behind her, Emma argued with her mother.

"I think she might be right, we should go that way"

"You said flip a coin, we flipped the coin, now let's go"

"Alright, fine. But if we don't see water by sundown we're walking back"

Regina had almost disappeared in the distance.

—-

Emma and Snow had been walking too long, Emma could feel her legs burning, her eyes were burning too, and her throat felt like sandpaper. And still, no sign of water.

"Maybe" Emma said, sitting down on the closest log "This was a bad idea"

Mary Margaret didn't turn to look at her, searching for any sign of water on the horizon.

"I bet Regina's already in the forest"

"Or eaten by ogres"

"Do you really believe there's ogres here?" Emma sounded unconvinced

"There are," Another voice answered, behind her. The blonde shot to her feet and turned, her hand going for her gun. She stopped when she saw the sword pointed at her neck. Holding the sword currently at her neck was a dark haired woman on horseback, she had an intricately patterned cape, it glinted red and gold in the sunlight. Behind her was another woman on horseback, she looked much less threatening, with auburn hair and a soft pink dress.

Mary Margaret had turned now, and was watching the two women warily.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Since I'm the one holding the sword, I think I ought to be the one asking," Mulan said.

It turned out, she didn't have many questions, as she vaulted off and quickly and neatly tied Emma and Snow's wrists together, securing them to her horse.

They'd walked for a long time like that, Emma couldn't tell how long it had been without a watch, but the sun was beginning to set when Mulan finally stopped. They had reached the sea, it was murky and brown, like the rest of this the shore, decrepit buildings dotted the beach. As they looked over the barren wasteland that must have once been a town, Mary Margaret spoke for the first time since she'd been tied up.

"What is this place?"

"Our home," Mulan replied.

Without much ceremony, the two were thrown into a cave that they used like a dungeon. Mary Margaret had paid for her attempted escape with a blow to the head from Mulan, and so was out cold in a corner of the cave. Emma had just met the other occupant of the cell, an older woman, with a kind smile, who was looking over Snow, reassuring her that her mother would be fine. Cora straightened herself up and Emma followed her to the far side of the cave.

"What is this place? Where are we?" She asked

"It's a little island our captors like to think of as their haven"

"Haven? From what?"

"The world's dangerous, what's left of it anyway" Cora said darkly

"Well they can't keep us down here, we didn't do anything wrong!"

"Neither did I," She looked and sounded sincere, Emma noted.

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm here because of something my daughter did" Cora replied "The curse that ravaged this land? She cast it"

Emma was in disbelief, her mind was racing.

"Regina?" She asked incredulously "You're Regina's mother?"

"Yes" Cora looked at her "But you have nothing to fear from me, the apple fell very far from the tree" she reassured the younger woman.

"Emma" Snow's voice was forceful as she looked at the other occupant of their cell,

"No…" she whispered, more to herself than to her daughter.

"Oh Snow, you're awake, I'm so relieved" Cora said with emphasis.

Snow turned to Emma, grabbing her arms

"Emma, As bad as you think Regina is, this woman is worse"

"Oh Snow, I can help you" her voice was smooth and soft "whatever Regina told you, it isn't true"

Emma looked at her mother

"Let's hear her out" she said after a moment

"Emma!"

Just as the blonde was about to reply to her mother, a rope was thrown into the cave from its small opening above the three women.

"Enough"a male voice called out, they looked up to see a man peering down at them,

"Our leader requests an audience," he said.