"Actually, I prefer it with the lights on" at his request, Hook had the knapsack over his head sharply removed to be greeted with the woman that had brought him back from New York and her male partner stood either side of him as he sat tied in a chair inside the clocktower of Storybrooke "I've spent enough time below deck to not be afraid of the dark, so if this is your idea of torture, well you're just gonna have to try a little harder".
"Torture you?" Owen questions him "No, we just want to offer you a job" he offer's the pirate.
"Oh. And then you're gonna let me go?" he points out to the woman, Tamara, making him laugh in her face "Oh, I'm sorry" he quickly sobers himself "I already did that last job. I killed Rumplestiltskin. I'm sated. Replete. My life's purpose met" he tells the pair.
"I wish I could have been there, to see you stab the Dark One" Tamara spoke up.
"Well, look who's up to speed" he drawled out at the woman.
"I'm a quick learner" she retorts with a smirk on her lips.
"Well, then you know my work is done".
"Yeah, I don't think so" Owen argues before he and Tamara push Hook closer to the window, handing him a telescope "Take a look" he instructs the pirate.
Snatching it out of the woman's hand the pirate holds it up to his sharp eyes, pointing it towards the street below them to see Rumplestiltskin himself walking down the street with his love on his arm with no other care in the world. He was alive.
"No. No!" he exclaims as the telescope it snatched away from his hand as his head hanging in failure.
"He's alive, Hook" Tamara tells him as he's pushed back away from the window, hanging his head in failure from his failed plan to finally end the crocodile's life.
"He beat you" Owen sneered in his face "Now this guy has some powerful magic here mate. He's untouchable. You'll never get another chance to take him down".
"Oh, I will. I will indeed" the pirate glowers at the man. He wouldn't give up. Not now, not ever.
"Not unless we help you" Tamara chimes in.
"How can you help me?" he demands from the pair making Tamara scoff.
"We know how to kill magical creatures".
"And the price?" he asks the pair.
"I need you to help me find someone" Owen speaks up "My father. He was taken in this town a long time ago".
"Why the bloody hell do you think I'll be able to help you find your father?".
"Because you know the woman who took him—Regina".
The simply notion made the pirate chuckle before a raucous laugh escaped his lips, forgetting about his recent failure of killing the Dark One, much to the annoyance and confusion etched on Tamara and Owens face as his the pirates laughter died down to he hearty chuckle as he enjoyed the pairs naivety.
"What's so funny?" the woman demands to know out of the pirate.
"You're both bloody fool's if you think you can get to her without going through her little brother" the pirate informs them with a gleeful smile on his face "He isn't called a damn Ripper for nothing. He's slaughtered whole villages for less".
"Don't worry about the vampire" Tamara confidently supplied to the pirate looking towards her partner who just wore a smirk on his lips "We have a plan for Elijah. He's part of our plan too".
"There's something of his we need to make sure he doesn't get in the way" Greg speak up "A weapon if you will, that will free you from wearing that ring on your finger that brings you back to life whenever he feels like killing you, over and over and over, again".
The smirk on the pirate lips dropped at this. It was bad enough it happened the first time, but over and over again. Now that was something he didn't want to find out how that felt.
"What do you need?" he quickly changed his tune.
"A portrait".
Unaware of the Evil Queen's presence as they sat at the docks ,with a cup of hot cocoa in their hand and a blanket over their legs, the Charming couple's late night discussion about the future was being overheard after the Queen's discovery of the magic beans they had been growing behind her's and Elijah's back.
"If, we're going back to the Enchanted Forest, are we really going to leave Regina and Elijah behind?" Mary Margaret voiced to her husband.
"She's too dangerous to bring with us. We have to leave her. And Elijah" he sighed out "He's too unpredictable since waking up from Cora's spell".
"Emma doesn't seem to think so" his wife tried to argue to her love. Despite everything their daughter held out hope for the man she barely knew, especially when he went missing for all that time.
"Emma doesn't know him like we do" he retorts.
"But... Henry won't like it. They are his mother and Uncle, despite all the horrors" she voices to him.
"Mary Margaret, those horrors will continue. Do you wanna give them another chance, because every time we do, they-".
"They slip, I know" she relents "What do we do?".
"Instead of a second chance, we give Regina a choice—come back, live out her days in Rumple's cell, send Elijah away to wherever his kind are from, or stay here".
The fisherman who has been listening the whole time steps away to a more secluded part of the docks, before being engulfed in purple smoke, revealing Regina in disguise.
"Jail cell? and Exile? I don't think so".
So, this was the house.
Stood in front of the two story home she had heard her little brother purchasing, the former Queen could see why he chose this one seeing saw the obvious improvements that needed to be done to the exterior, the faded paint, the cracking and crumbling wooden frames of the widows and doors. and if the inside was as bad as it looked on the outside. He would be busy for a while.
He always liked a project.
It even had a white picket fence. Well.. a picket fence that looked like it had better day's as it stood with missing or broken slats lining the 'perfect' family home her brother had bought. Little did he know that how much he painted, saw and nailed on the building, it would never take back the family he did break when he decided to lie to her for more than thirty years.
Steeling herself to speak to her brother in person the former Queen raised a closed fist to knock on the front door
"Regina" she heard his voice behind her making her turn to see him holding a hammer in one hand and freshly sanded fence slat in the other with a dress shirt rolled up his arms. Even manual labour didn't stop him from wearing a suit "What do you want?" he get's straight to the point of her unexpected visit.
"Can't a sister visit her little brother in his new house?" she questions him making him scoff in reply, shaking his head in disbelief as he turned his back to continue his word on the picket fence, not having time for whatever she came here for.
Carefully making her way down the porch steps the former Queen followed her brother over the front lawn to find him lining up the new fence slat on the frame.
"What do want Regina? I have no time for whatever little drama you've managed to to get yourself into of late" he tells her lining the slat against the frame.
"It isn't" she hisses at him "It's about this".
Taking the magic bean pod from her coat pocket, the former Queen showed her little brother what she had found the previous night as he humoured his sister looking down at the item she was showing him to see a magic bean pod.
"Where did you get that?" he say's reaching out to take it from her hand only for his sibling to quickly to snatch it out of his reach.
A magic bean. So that's why she was asking her all those questions about the Forest. They were planning on going back.
"You mean during your little coffee date with Miss Swan she failed to mention they had a way to get back to our home and leave us behind" she teased him seeing a flash of pain in face. She deceived him.
"It wasn't a date" he state's matter of factly slamming the mallet on the top of the wooden slat making her jump at the viciousness. She hit a nerve "Now that you've shown me the bean. Why is it you're here?".
"They've been growing beans so they can take Henry to the Enchanted Forest. Without us".
"Perhaps they just haven't told us yet?" he tried to reason.
"I don't think so" she retorts "I know we've had our...differences lately, but you've always seen the good in me. The good Henry's seen. They only see the Evil Queen, which they made me into. This is our chance to go back and start over. For always and forever".
"How do you expect to achieve this?".
"The failsafe built into the curse. The trigger. It's the next best thing to going back in time".
"And prey tell me what happens to Storybrooke, when this trigger is activated" he blinks at his sister.
"It disappears. Forever. We can get away first. Me, you and Henry. Back to the Enchanted Forest, using this".
"And everyone else?".
"They die" she states to him with a straight face that made her brother's face scrunch in disgust "I don't have any other choice. As long as there are other people in our lives, Henry can never fully me mine. Be ours" she pressed the man in front of her as he paused his work at the fence line to turn and face her "Don't you want that, to be the only man in Henry's life for him to look up to. Do you enjoy this stranger sweep in and take over the decade you've spent raising him".
"I don't" he admits to her "I hate that I'm here fixing a house in the hope of a promise of a future that drifts away each time I am left to think for too long, to fix the parts in my mind that have been left broken by the monster I became, all the while a man I don't know is trying to be some sort of father to a boy I've spent the last ten years trying to fill that role. I hate that feeling. He has something I can never have".
"And yet you stand before me and do nothing but complain of being named the villain when you have done so little to prove them wrong. And this trigger. This plan of yours. Is only further proof that you are the villain".
Blinking back the tears that gathered in her tears, each of her brother's words felt like another stab of betrayal as she tucked the magic bean back into her pocket to reach into her purse to take out their mother's spell book.
"Doesn't matter what you think" her voice cracks as she pull herself together "Everything I just said will come to pass".
"Why would I ever let you do any of this? Why even tell me all this?" taking a step towards his sister, the Queen quickly hold's her hand up in a stop as a purple hue of magic encased the vampire making him freeze in place on his front lawn.
"Because I don't have anyone else to talk to" she admits to her brother "And you won't remember a thing" opening the book to the right page the elder sister looks at her brother one last time before erasing their entire conversation from his mind "I'm sorry" she whispers to him before wave her had in front of his face, wiping his mind of their last conversation, a blank look coming across his features before he came out to see his sister stood in front of him, allowing her to hide the spell book in her purse once again.
"Regina? What are you doing here?" the vampire quizzically greeted his sister.
"Just came to say hello. I've...missed you" she slowly tells him with a sheepish smile "Hello" she adds. She had missed him. The house felt emptier that it had before without
"Hello" he replies with a gentle smile.
"I see you're busy" she notes "I won't keep you from fixing your fence"
"Once it's ready. You and Henry should come for dinner. I'll cook" he offers the olive branch
"I'd love that" she grins at him before turning to find the pathway to leave the property, leaving her brother to watch her as she walked down the street unaware of her true plans for Storybrooke.
With the last magic beans safely in her possession in her office, the former Queen peered into the tank that now housed the last of the beans the hero's had been growing that hadn't been turned to ash.
The former Queen was brought of her thoughts when she heard footsteps outside of her office, thinking it was the heroes' having discovered the burn field the older woman hurries over to her desk intending to face them head on only to be surprised to see Captain Hook let himself into the office looking a little worse for ware after he left to go to and kill Rumplestiltskin out in the Land of No Magic.
"Captain! You look like you've had a rough time" she observes outload.
"Indeed I have" he replies limping into the office to stand at the desk alongside the woman "I've come to ask you for your protection".
"From Gold? I'm surprised you'd show your face in this town after you noticed your murder didn't take" she retorts.
"Well we've got bigger problems" he tells her "That man Greg Mendell, the one who hit me the night I shot Belle, well he's in league with some woman. She abducted me in New York and dragged me back to Mendell. They want me to make an alliance with you, steal something of your brother's and then betray you. That's why they let me go. Well I say that you and I make an alliance, and we'll skip the unpleasant betrayal business and my neck doesn't get snapped once again by your baby brother's".
"Why should I trust you?" she asks the pirate.
"I took up with your mother for a reason. Perhaps the three of us could re-establish in our alliance".
"My mother died" she informs the man, through gritted teeth, the pian evident of her loss and grief that still showed despite
The news of the Queen of Heart's demise seemed to take the pirate aback "That is sad news indeed. I'm sorry, she will be missed" he voices to her "But I tell you this, Regina. I knew her well enough to know what she wanted most in the world was to see her children win. Now I failed in my revenge. The best tribute I could give her is to help you with yours".
"Can I...Let me show you something".
Taking the pirate over to the tank, the pirate saw what the Queen was growing straight away. "An escape plan? Oh, she would have loved that. She brought that giant for the beans so she could go back and start over with you and the Ripper".
"And now I'm going to do that with Henry. If you'll help me. This is how we're going to escape the total destruction of Storybrooke. If I can trust you".
"Now when you say "total destruction", including the Crocodile, yes?".
"Oh, yes" she scoffs "Rumplestiltskin will die. If you help me".
Lunch with Marco and the young Pinocchio at Granny's seemed to became a well received occurrence since the vampire started renovations on his home as it gave the men an opportunity for the youngest Mill's siblings to repay the favour for the carpenter's help.
Sat in a booth, the men sat opposite the other while the young boy sat next to his Papa eating as the men went over the plan's the vampire had for the second floor of the two-story house, every so often the carpenter involved his young son into the conversation as he taught him his craft.
The bell above the door took the vampire up from the plans on the table hearing a familiar but new heartbeat enter the restaurant as he caught sight of Tamara, Neal's fiancée enter the diner, giving the woman a friendly smile in silent greeting, one was mirrored on her's before she headed towards the bar to place an order for lunch while he went back to his discussions with the carpenter.
The Ripper was here.
She couldn't help but to grin at herself at the coincidence as she waited patiently for Neal's sandwich, an idea came to her mind how to mess with him. Underneath the suits and good manners there was a beast ready to be let out of it's cage and she wanted to see if how much she can rattle it's bars.
Taking out the note she had made of a list over everyone in Storybrooke and their fairy tale counterparts, her eye's went down the list finding his name typed out with the question mark that sat along side it. She couldn't place him in any fairy tale, but once she got her hands that portrait. As far as she was concerned it was;
Game Over.
Eyeing a lone knife over the counter, the woman used her bag to covertly reach over the counter while other patrons weren't looking to pick up the knife and hide it from view until she had the opportunity to do what damage she could do.
Slipping the glove off her finger, the woman placed the sharp edge of the knife on the soft skin of her finger, bracing herself for the pain that would accompany her trick, but if she got the reaction she wanted to get, it would be worth it.
With a deep breath, Tamara pushed the steel blade into her skins before quickly cutting a deep gash in the skin making blood welt up from the wound immediately , the uncomfortable cough coming from the booth behind her, confirmed she had got her intended target as a smirk grew on her lips. Got him.
"Elijah? Are you okay my friend" she heard the old man ask the vampire as she ignored the throbbing pain, replaced her glove to look over her shoulder to see the man with his hand overing his mouth and nose as the dark vein under his eye's coming in an out of view as he struggled to control his vampiric side at the scent of fresh blood in the room.
"Excuse me" he managed to tell the carpenter before he sped off in a blur towards the back as she see's a waitress she recognised as Ruby run after the man in the suit as another behind the counter arrives with her order.
"Here you go" the waitress announced holding up the bag to her, as she quickly discarded the bloodied knife onto the floor.
"No mayo, right?" she replies with a friendly smile, unaware that Emma had entered the diner behind her as she took to the takeout bag from the waitress.
Turning to leave, unaware of the blonde's presence behind her the woman walks straight into the blonde making the latter drop her purse onto the floor and some of it's contents fall out, including the list she had hastily put away only moment ago.
"Ohh! I'm so sorry" the blonde exclaims as the blonde crouches down to help pick up her belonging's from the floor, noticing the takeout bag in the woman's other hand.
"I'm - He still hates mayo, huh?" she asks her ex's fiancée as the blonde come's across a list with the names of nearly everyone in town and their respective Storybrooke counterparts including her parents only for Elijah's name to peak her interest but more notably the question mark where his fairy tale name should be take the blonde aback.
"Avoids it like the plague" Tamara answered her taking the list, putting it back into her purse before the pair stood to their feet.
"How are you doing here in Storybrooke?" Emma asks the woman "I mean, it's a lot to take in".
"Understatement" she answers making the pair laugh "But, uh, I guess you know that better than anyone".
"Yeah, I guess it's true. But I had Henry. He got me through it".
"Yeah. Right. Neal's doing the same for me" Tamara tells her.
"Even so, it's pretty crazy here. If the world found out about this place, do you know what that would mean for Henry or Neal?".
"Look, Emma, you don't have to worry. You can trust me" she reassures the woman for the woman's reassurance to raise a red flag with the blonde's 'superpower'.
"That's good to know" Emma made herself say to Neal's fiancée.
"I'll be seeing you later".
"Yeah, I'll be seeing you" Emma tells the woman stepping aside to let her leave the diner only for the woman to stop and turn to the blonde with a concerned etching her face.
"Oh, if you're looking for Elijah, I just saw him run to the bathroom. Hope he's okay".
Stumbling into the secluded hallway, his head pounded in his skull as his stomach called out for the blood he smelt from across the diner. The sudden scent, sent his hunger into haywire as the vampire felt his fangs protrude from his gums and the familiar tingle under his eye's as the heartbeats around him got louder.
He needed to get out of there. Excusing himself from the booth the vampire sped to find solitude in the bathroom only to stumble in the hallway between the diner and Inn, to catch himself on the wall, pushing his head into the wall as he took in deep breath to stave off the feeling of the hunger that pushed him to go back into the diner and drain every person inside the building.
"Elijah!" Ruby's voice cut though his thoughts as she found him in the hallway leaning against the hallway hiding his face from views and he held onto the wall for dear life, like it was the only thing stopping him from something.
"Stay back!" he halts her progress towards him as she saw why he was telling her to stop.
Instead of leaving like he requested the she-wolf marched towards the vampire taking his hand into her's making him turn around to face the mirror that hung in the hallway, instantly meeting his vampiric face in the glass with her stood beside him
"Listen to me, tell yourself that you're going to get through it, that you're strong enough-".
"No, No, I'm not" he whined to the woman as continued to struggle to fight off the onslaught of hunger that was triggered by the small scent of blood from the counter. He wanted to look away from the monster in the reflection, but the she-wolf just pushed him back so that the vampire saw the monstrous face that had killed so many people. She-wolf only gripped his hand harder in her's making him listen to what she had to say.
"Yes! No matter how good it feels to get yourself over to it, you fight it off, bury it" she tells him "There are people in this world that care about you so much Elijah, now you can either let yourself give into this feeling or let it beat you and turn you into something you're not. The man I know you are".
The echo's of his own words to her's rang through his mind as he told himself he was going to get through this, that he had to get through this, not just for himself but for the people who still cared for him despite all the horror's he had created.
Taking in a few breaths, his face softened as his fangs recede back into his gums.
He was okay.
Meeting his reflection he took in a deep breath as he saw his face once again. He was fine. He could control himself. He could breathe.
Turns to the woman beside him how keeping a tight grip on his arm as he turned to look down at the woman who had pulled him back from the cliff he was about to dive into, his gaze meeting her's as he didn't know how to thank her. Letting go of her hand, the turned towards the woman next to him gently taking her head into his hands.
"Thank you" he breathed out resting his head on her's, closing the distance between their faces until his nose grazed against his before his lips found her's in a fathered kiss he intended to leave only for the she-wolf to melt into the moment as she eagerly responds, deepening the kiss as the vampire pushes her against the wall next to the mirror, as the pair get lost in the moment.
What neither saw was the presence of the blonde saviour down the hall, eager to check on the vampire only to see Elijah and Ruby together in the passionate embrace, a pang of hurt striking the woman's mind as she quickly turned her heel to leave the area as fast as she could as the pair parted, his remained on her's as he took in her comforting presence. He missed her.
But recent events had put a dampener on any relationship with the she-wolf, it simply wasn't fair to involve her in everything that was going on in his mind. Perhaps it was selfish on his part, but she didn't have to end up like Hayley or Sybil. Everything he loved, whether compelled or not, always ended up dead or worse.
"My apologies" his hoarse voice croaks out "I shouldn't have done that".
"It's fine" she tells him pushing down her feelings of having him back to focus on what had just happened to the man. Pushing himself away from her the vampire put distance between the pair as he leaning against the opposite wall the woman.
"What happened?" she asks the man "I thought you were in control, you have blood bags at home. We've kept blood here-".
"I'm fine" he tries to tell the concerned woman, not wanting to answer her.
"Clearly not" she sharply retorts not happy with his attempt of dismissing the subject.
"I lost control is because, I haven't fed since leaving my Inn" he admitted to the woman.
The blood in his fridge wasn't appetising, nor did the blood that Emma had gotten him when he met up with her. As soon as he left her at the docks to find Gold at the pawn shop, he threw it away.
He was starving. But he hardly noticed it once he started working on projects around the house. Nit-picking every squeak or creek. He kept busy, not thinking about the pangs of hunger in his stomach.
"That was day's ago Elijah" she scolds him "Why haven't you been eating?".
"I'm afraid that once I start. I won't be able to stop. So instead I work on the house. Keep my hand's and mind busy and the hunger goes".
"Elijah, that's not healthy. Have you tried animals, I know it's not the same-".
"Do you? Do you truly know how it feels to be powerful and weak all at the same time?".
That's how he felt whenever he fed animal blood, like a lion being fed tofu. Sure it helped sate the hunger, but he got nothing from it. He felt more pain, less strong all to simmer the fire in his stomach that ached for the real thing, fresh from an artery, not from a plastic bag or Styrofoam cup.
"You know I do" she trailed off making the man go quiet "That can't happen again Elijah, you know what'll happen if you lose control".
All he could was nod in agreement before his head fell. The hero's would no sooner throw him away in a cell and forget about him. Seeing forlorn look on his face the she-wolf closed her distance between them placing her finger under his chin to make him look up at her.
"Go to the forest and hunt" she tells him "No one's going to judge you for indulging in your other half to make sure you stay healthy. Take a break from everything for a day".
"But-" he tried to argue.
"If anything happens, we'll call you" she reassure him "I promise" leaning forward the she-wolf seals her promise with a chaste kiss to his cheek making the vampire feel the warmth of the gesture , spread in his chest.
"Thank you". He didn't deserve her affection.
"Your welcome" she replies with a smirk "Now go, I'll get your stuff from the booth and tell Marco you needed to go. Just make sure you leave me something to hunt during my wolfs-time".
"Always Miss Ruby" he tells the woman with a boyish grin before speeding out of the back door to indulge on the forest life to prevent an event like this happening again.
With Hook on his fools errand to find Elijah's portrait through his sister the Queen. He got to work finding the weapon that would truly put an end to the vampire, and with any luck it was in his own house.
Chances were that he knew who he was after the conversation he had with his older sister, so he needed to be ready to face the vampire when he eventually confronted him.
Finding the house with ease the outsider climbed the steps up to the front door noticing the obvious repairs that had been made the the outside as he found a discarded paintbrush on the railing of the front porch and sawdust on the boards. He's been busy.
Peering inside the home, through the parted curtains he saw the furniture covered in dust sheets with the inside in a similar shape, with floorboards missing and a workbench setup in the middle of the room.
Turning his attention to the front door, the outsider, pulled at the handle only to find it firmly locked "Damn it" he cursed to himself. Even vampire's believe in home security. He could just break in, but he couldn't put alert Elijah or the Sherriff right now. He would have to forget about the house for the time being.
Climbing down the steps the outside turned to go around the house hoping there was a out building. A garage. A Shed. Anything.
He was in luck. A shed. Only closed shut closed. Not padlocked.
"Bingo" he whispered closing the distance between him and the shed. Opening the door luck struck once again for the outsider as he not only found the frame that once framed the vampire's portrait, but it had been conveniently broken into pieces for him to pick up the biggest chunks of gold gilded white oak and pocket them.
Six pieces to be exact.
Six chances to kill a vampire.
Comfortable silence enveloped the elevator as the former Queen and pirate travelled down from the library to the depth's of Storybrooke to where the Queen had hidden two items that were being guarded by Maleficent. One would destroy Storybrooke, and the other. Leverage against the one person that could stop her.
Reaching the bottom, the bared door lifted from it's place allowing the pair to step out into mines that led to the cavern that held these pieces.
"You ever wonder if this constant pursuit for revenge is the reason we have no one who cares for us?" Hook asked the woman curiously "I mean, when all this is over, and I know the Crocodile is dead, for good and all, I'll have nothing to look forward to. My life will be empty. Revenge may sate your being, but don't misunderstand me, my dear. It's an end, not a beginning".
"For you, maybe. Not me" she retorted "I have Henry" she tells him as they came to a stop in the mines. "And destroying Storybrooke? Well... that seems like a small price to pay to allow us to live in peace".
"And the Ripper? Last time I saw him, he was a little less...himself" he chose his word carefully "Your mother told me what he did to you. Yet he still breathes. Always and Forever" he mimics the promise the siblings made that was overheard by their mother.
If she truly wanted to destroy Storybrooke and all that lived there, he couldn't have her have a change of heart when it came to her baby brother. Not when came to sating his own vengeance.
"The Ripper dies alongside the rest of the town" she tells the pirate with a steady voice despite her hate for the nickname he had been adopted. A tight smirk grew on the pirates lips at the use of her brother's nickname. He was satisfied for now.
Extending his arm out, gesturing her to go first only for the Queen to see the leather cuff on his wrist. The one Cora gave him to aid him in his climb of the beanstalk.
"Where did you get that?" she asks the man seeing the cuff "It belonged to my mother".
"Yes. Well, she enchanted it so I could climb the beanstalk in our world. She, uh..."
"I don't care why she gave it to you" she interrupted his explanation "It was hers, and I want it back".
"You plan to blow this town and brother off the map, and you're worried about a scrap of cowhide?" he questions her.
She was my mother" she pressed.
"Well, she was my friend" he argued.
"Hardly" she told him with a narrowed gaze. Yielding to her argument the pirate held out his arm to her, allowing to take the cuff from his wrist seeing the ring, that he had 'taken' from the ashes of Dracula's castle to prove the hybrids death. The woman smiled to herself as she secured the piece of her mother to her wrist before continuing with their short journey. "Now follow me closely".
Rounding the corner the pair stepped into the dark cavern where the trigger and the other item was being guarded by her old friend.
"Precarious" the pirate commented as he saw the cliff-edge that went further down "You couldn't have just hid the trigger in the back of your wardrobe?".
The comment made the Queen chuckle to herself "It had to be both well-hidden and well-guarded. I put it somewhere no one would ever think I'd go".
"Yeah, when you say well-guarded...Who's guarding it?" he asks the woman.
"A friend" she tells him watching him step closer to the edge to look down the abyss "She's been through a lot. There's a powerful spell here that sustains her in... whatever form she's in. In fact, Hook, she's the reason why this is a man job.
And what exactly am I here to do?" he asks looking over his shoulder.
"I'll get the trigger. And you?" she replies "Well... you're the distraction".
"The what?" the man was taken aback at her working making him look back at the woman.
With a firm shove, the Queen pushed the pirate over the edge of the cliff to land heavily at the bottom to face the sorceress that she knew didn't like visitors.
While Maleficent was pre-occupied with Hook, the Queen rounded the edge clearly hearing her friend awaken from her slumber at the unwanted visitor until she found Snow's glass coffin, covered in dust of dirt over the past twenty-eight years, hidden away from anyone who had tried to find it. Including her son at one point.
Rounding the coffin, the Queen stilled before sending her gloved hand through the glass pane to reach into the coffin, moving the debris out of the way for the woman to find the pouch that held the trigger that would destroy Storybrooke.
Pulling the pouch out, the Queen loosened it's tries to take out the diamond that would seal the hero's and Storybrooke's fate.
Satisfied with her find, returning the diamond trigger to the pouch, the woman used the same hole in the glass to feel for the second item she was there to find. After a few seconds, her gloved hand found the canvas that had been cut out of its frame and neatly rolled up with a leather string to be kept close to it's owner's person, only now to be in the hands of the woman he betrayed all those years ago.
Bringing the portrait out of the coffin a satisfied smirk grew on the woman's lips knowing that she now held her brother's immortal life in her hands if he tried to stop her from taking Henry away.
"Always and Forever" Regina whispered to the piece of canvas in triumph. She will have her final vengeance once and for all.
With her brother's portrait firmly in one hand and the trigger in the other, the Queen made her exit out of the cavern, leaving Hook for dead, the Queen returned to the surface, ready to put her plan into the motion as she heard the elevators door's open, she stepped out only to stopped when she saw Captain Hook stood in front of her alive and well leaning against the front desk, seemingly waiting for her to return.
"How?" she gasped at him.
"Startling, aren't I?" he tells her "Some people say "striking."
"You couldn't have survived that" she stated pocketing the pouch in her coat and hiding the portrait behind her leg, keeping it close to her side. She wasn't even sure her brother would be able to survive that, let alone a mortal man, an injured mortal man at that. It was impossible.
"Well, you should know by now the one thing I excel at is surviving" he tells her before slowly limping over to her "The amazing thing is, you almost had me .All that stuff about a fresh, clean start, just killing 'em and movin' on... it kinda touched me. For a moment there, I thought we had a real connection. And honestly, I almost put a stop to my plan".
"Your plan?" she questioned him, her brows furrowing in disbelief.
"Well, their plan, but I fancied it" he replied "And they did save me from that wretched... whatever maleficent is".
The sound of the door opening made the Queen look to the left to see Owen Flynn enter the library with a woman she didn't know "Do you, uh, know these two?" Hook asks her indicating to the new pair "Well, they have a way with magic. Or should I say, a way against magic" Hook continued as the pair rounded the room to put themselves in front of the only exit.
"Enough of this" she states to the trio, raising her empty hand to conjuring a ball of fire into her hand only for nothing to happen making a shiver of fear run down her spine.
"Yeah, sorry" Owen spoke up "That's not gonna work. Not anymore".
She was powerless.
Cutting the engine of his red ford truck outside the cloaked field of beans, the second Sheriff of Storybrooke climbed out of the car alongside his wife and Leroy to check on the crop ahead of their trip back home.
"You know, when we get back, Leroy, we're going to need your help restoring the palace" the former Prince tells the dwarf.
"It's in pretty bad shape" Mary Margert added, knowing first hand at the state of disrepair from the curse that had ravaged through it.
"Cosmetic or a total teardown?" he asked the pair. as they made their way to the side of the road where the field of bean were being grown.
"Burn down" she answered the dwarf as they walked through the cloak. Instead of finding a field of healthy green been plants, the royals and dwarf were instead greeted with the aftermath of the Evil Queen tirade. Row after row of blackened, crisp greenery replaced the vibrant healthy green of the beans that were growing.
"No" David whispered in horror at the scene before them.
"What happened here?" his wife asked.
"The beans... they're gone" the Prince stated rushing forward hoping to find one stalk, one bean that had survived the fire that had swept through the field. But no, nothing survived. They were all gone.
"Nobody steals from a dwarf" Leroy glowered at the former Princess as the anger he felt of his and brother's hard work completely destroyed.
"Who would do this" Mary Margaret asked the question on everyone minds.
Cornered in a trap one of her own making, Regina now stood powerless surrounded with no explanation on how her magic had disappeared.
"The cuff" she realized outload looking at the cuff on her wrist "You gave me this" she glowered at the pirate in betrayal.
"Well, you rather insisted" he retorted to her.
"You knew I would want it".
"True. They rigged it with something that blocks your magic.
"It's impressive" he chuckles in amusement turning look at the pair behind him only to turn back to see the canvas in her hand "I'll take that shall I?" he states the woman, reaching down to snatch it out of her hand "The Ripper's portrait" he goes on making Regina's face drop, knowing she couldn't do anything to get it back "I must say I had heard rumour's how he managed to keep his youthful looks for so long, but then that Lestat fella cleared a few things up for me" he grinned at the woman.
Her heart pounded in her chest hearing that name come from Hook's mouth. She never told him his real name. "How do you know that name?" she glowered at the pirate.
"Turns out, he was a friend of your mother's as well" he told her before turning to hand the portrait over to Tamara, who gratefully take it into her possession as she stared at the older woman in front of her.
"Thank you" she tells the man before Regina turned her attention towards Owen.
"So little bitty Owen does grown-up magic of his own now" Regina carped at the man.
"It's not magic" he points out to her "Actually, this is something much better... science" he simply explained as the woman tried to pry the cuff off her wrist "You... you can stop doing that. It's not gonna work. You might be able to get rid of the leather, but inside are the toughest metals and machinery known to man, and right now they're counteracting every magic bone in your body".
"Which one was she?" Tamara asked Owen, taking out the list she had made from her purse.
"Uh, she was the... the Queen" Owen tells her "The Evil Queen".
"The vampire's sister?" she questions him further, wanting the older woman know what she knew.
"Right".
"Yes. I was, the Queen" Regina confirms to the woman.
"But now? Here? You're nothing" Owen tells her.
"And what are you?" she retorts.
"I'm just a man. A man on a mission".
"And all this just to try to find your father. I already told you, I don't know where...".
"Yes, you do" he interrupts her "But that's not my mission".
"Then what is?".
The corner of his lips quirked up in amusement seeing her trying to find out what he was trying to do "I'm not telling you".
"Bag her" were the last two words she heard before her world turned dark.
AN: Hello there!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Filler chapter until we get to the next two episodes. Was originally going part of the episode, and then go straight into Second Star to the Right, but then it turned into the whole episode. Eek!.
Anyway. It works out better this way, because of what I have planned out for the next chapter. Exciting!.
In the meantime;
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