Chapter Text
Wind whipped down Main Street as the magical hold that had paralyzed everyone evaporated. They stared in shock at the spot where Mr. Gold and his father, Peter Pan, had stood in an embrace before the former used the Dark One dagger to end them both. Belle collapsed onto the pavement, sobbing quietly. Otherwise, there was no sound from them as Regina stepped forward to retrieve the scroll. It was all that was left of Gold's heroism and she would not let his moment of doing right by his family down.
After all, she needed to do the same now.
"I… have to undo the curse," she whispered, admitting the plan to the others. Her gaze shifted from Emma to Henry, then back again. "We don't belong here. None of this does. And, it's the only way to stop what Pan had started."
With an arm still around their son, Emma's stunned look filtered away into one of confusion. "What exactly does that mean?"
"We're all going back to the Enchanted Forest," answered Mary Margaret. "That's what she means by undoing the curse."
Regina glanced at the school teacher and gave a curt nod, then looked back to Emma. "When I destroy the scroll, it will send all of us back. Henry, however, was born in this world so that means he has to stay here."
"What?" Henry said sharply before looking at both his mothers, pleading desperately. "No! I want to go with you! I have to go with you!"
She crouched down in order to be eye level with her son, cupping his face in her hands.
"Henry… I don't know that it's possible. My vision was clear that I'd have to give you up to protect you." Regina sighed heavily and looked up toward Emma, love in her eyes. "Emma can stay with you, because it was built into the curse that the savior could escape it. That way, you still have each other."
"No," Emma says, shaking her head as if willingly defying what Regina said would make her words any less true. "No way am I giving you up. There has to be another way. There's always another way."
She knelt down and clasped Regina's arm. "This is no different than the trigger. You thought you had to die in order to protect the town, but we stopped it. We can figure something out here too!"
"That's right!" exclaimed David. "You both saved the town. You can do it again." He squeezed Mary Margaret's hand and looked sympathetically towards his daughter. "I don't want to lose you again either. I know it doesn't mean much with everything that's happened, but I don't want to let you go, Emma."
"I…" Regina started, but then no words came out. She didn't know what to say. Her vision had been obvious, but then, Emma and David's arguments made sense. Together, they did have the knack for making the impossible possible. From Maine to Neverland. Regina swallowed hard and stared at Henry, trying to fathom a plan.
"IT'S COMING! IT'S COMING!" Leroy's scream broke the temporary silence as he pounded up the side street by the library. "It's almost here! Green smoke, magical smoke. It's coming!"
Regina pulled herself to a standing position, looking haunted. "We don't have much time."
"What do we do? I have to come with you!" Henry almost shrieked, his panic mounting thanks to Leroy's doomsday cries.
"Great. Now we don't have any time left …" It took all of Emma's willpower to not swear in front of Henry as she quickly worked through what options they had. She looked to Regina helplessly. "Well, your vision. It showed you Henry had to stay. It showed you what you needed to do to end your curse, right?"
Regina nodded, her tone bleak with the reality of this. "I have to destroy the scroll. In doing so, it will… destroy Storybrooke as if it had never existed. Nothing will remain. And, that will return us to the Enchanted Forest-"
Acknowledging the journey that Emma and Mary Margaret had already taken there, she gave the latter a glance.
"-what's left of it, anyway."
"But… there's a chance with the magic being undone, that the Enchanted Forest can be brought back too?" asked Mary Margaret.
"Sorta like having all this - " Emma waved her hands around the immediate area, "- fix all of the dead areas of the other land?"
"Ma!" Henry grabbed Emma by the jacket and tugged, still stricken with panic. "Focus! We can worry about that later when we're all there to find out! But we all need to be there!"
Regina pursed her lips and nodded. Time was of the essence, but what was the plan? She looked at David and Mary Margaret. Neal. Belle. They were Henry's family too. A sliver an idea came to her, but Regina felt anxious because there was no way to know that it would work. She hated risking Henry's safety and future on faith alone. Her gloved hand was tightened into a fist, clenching the scroll.
"As the green smoke approaches us, I'll tear this apart. That will counteract wherever Pan would have sent us, and instead return us to the Enchanted Forest. All of you… we all need to circle Henry. Surround him. Have your hands on him to hold onto him. It's… all I can think of, that the power of his family's love for him will protect him and bring him with us." Regina took a deep breath. "Emma, do you think that will work?"
"True Love, Emma," said Mary Margaret with tearful eyes. "It's the most powerful magic there is. Your father saved me with True Love's Kiss. Your heart couldn't be taken from you because you're a product of that love. We all love Henry and don't want to leave him. It just has to work!"
Emma looked long and hard at her mother and despite her personal feelings, Mary Margaret had a point. Everyone present here did not want to be separated from Henry. But was it honestly enough? This was Pan's curse. The curse that uprooted realms and transported them to wherever the person desired them to go and most importantly, under their rules.
Begrudgingly, she had agree to a point. "I don't know if it'll be enough without the use of our magic, Regina."
The mayor gazed deep into her eyes, thinking about the trigger and the way they'd moved the clouds over the moon at Skull Rock. Regina nodded in understanding. Together, their combined magic was incredibly powerful.
"You're right, Em," she whispered, using the abbreviated pet name that was normally reserved for when they were alone.
Balling her hands into fists, Emma gazed at her with that familiar ferocity that would either get the savior into trouble or it would save them all. "What do we have to do?"
Regina shook her head, thinking. She was vaguely aware of Leroy hopping from foot-to-foot anxiously out the corner of her vision. Regina did her best to ignore that annoying distraction, working on this latest crisis.
What spells would be of use now? Here? What can we do that would make this work despite the laws of magic? How do I guide Emma who is still just learning to use magic?
"We… focus. And think… happy thoughts, as ridiculous as that sounds, considering what we've just been through in Neverland. As you feel everyone's love and care for Henry, focus on that. I don't care if you picture it as strands that you braid, or whatever other image works for you. Just focus those emotions. I'll help you with that as soon as the scroll is destroyed."
If the situation weren't dire, Emma would have quipped a snappy remark and rolled her eyes at Regina suggesting she think about braiding hair. She was taking this seriously and knew what happy thought to focus on - having Regina and Henry with her when they return to the Enchanted Forest. That was her happy thought and she didn't need pixie dust to tell her that.
She stepped up and gave Regina a tender kiss. "We can do this."
Regina returned the kiss and could practically feel Henry's nervous gaze boring into them. As the kiss broke, it was her son she looked to when she spoke. "Yes. We can do this."
Clutching the scroll tightly, Regina directed everyone to put Henry at the center and to make physical contact with him. She took a half-step away, taking a good hard look at the scroll. Her mind flashed back to the trade with Maleficent, then having to threaten her to get it back. Regina remembered the failed attempt at enacting the curse, then Rumpelstiltskin informing her the high price it would cost.
Daddy!
Henry!
Gritting her teeth, Regina unraveled the slender parchment and - just as ominous green clouds rolled onto Main Street from all sides, Regina ripped the scroll to shreds. It crackled with violet magical energy. She pressed one hand onto her son's shoulder, next to Emma's, and used the other to direct her magic toward Pan's curse. Emma joined in, following her instincts, and letting her white magic intermingle with Regina's as it aimed for the green smoke heading their way. Their magic combined, crackling together in harmony as the now greenish-violet clouds now overwhelmed Storybrooke, deconstructing it so thoroughly that it never existed as its inhabitants were transported away…
A greenish-violet storm raced over the land, startling creatures of all kinds with its suddenness and ferocity. As the eye of the storm settled over a meadow, it released several bolts of lightning. Then, the storm abruptly vanished, revealing the clear, lovely daytime sky that had preceded it. Where the eye of the storm had been stood the Enchanted Forest's returning residents.
David looked around in awe, not having the opportunity to have returned like his wife. The land was green and lush, not anything like the stories that Emma and Snow had shared. Even his clothes had changed to the pre-curse ones - still ripped and bloodied from the fight with Regina's knights.
"We're back …" he whispered as Snow squeezed his hand.
"Henry! Where's Henry?!" Regina asked in a panic, oblivious to being re-dressed as the Evil Queen.
"Henry?!" Snow's voice joined Regina's, as did Neal's and Belle's. All were frantic to know if the plan had worked and Henry had safely arrived with them.
"Over here!" Henry was on the top most step of a white, well-maintained gazebo, waving his arms over his head with a big grin to get everyone's attention. He was still in his modern clothing, unlike everyone else. "You did it! It worked!"
"Oh thank goodness you're here."
Regina breathed a sigh of relief and rushed toward her son, only then realizing how she was attired. She gasped softly, then pulled Henry into a hug. But Henry didn't care at all how his mother looked - dressed in the same outfit that he had only seen in his storybook, or how she had so much more hair now! He knew in his heart that the Evil Queen was no longer evil. She pulled back, looking to survey the others and to call to Emma, expecting that she would have rushed to Henry too. But, she didn't see her lover with her parents, nor with Neal or Belle. From the edge of the woods, other residents of Storybrooke were starting to emerge, garbed in clothing that matched their lives in the Enchanted Forest. However, she didn't see Emma anywhere.
"Emma? Where's Emma?!" she cried out, nearly choking as fear took root in her heart.
"Wait … she's not here?" Neal looked around quizzically.
David moved before Regina, clearly exasperated that his daughter was missing. "How can she not be here? She helped you guide all of us here."
"It's possible that she's not in the immediate location? Like these other people?" offered Snow.
Regina frowned, a sight that was all the more fearful because of her Evil Queen attire. She scanned the citizenry, feeling panic bloom in her soul.
"She was with us. She should be with us now," Regina practically growled. "We have to find her."
Henry looked grief stricken and apologetic, for once unphased by his mother's tone. "Did she end up having to stay behind because I came along?"
"Oh, Henry… I don't know." She crouched beside him, wrapping her arms around him. "We'll figure this out. I promise."
"If anything of hers managed to come over, we could try a locator spell," suggested Belle.
David nodded in agreement. "Yes. That would work. I used one to-"
"Yes, we know," Regina replied tersely. "To find Jefferson, using his hat."
The hat. Jefferson's damned portal-creating hat.
Regina's thighs burned from crouching in heels as she tried desperately to make his hat work. She was scared to death that her magic would fail her, that the wraith would take her despite Emma insisting that she would protect her.
Why would she promise that to Henry anyway? Regina thought, baffled.
Focus!
She focused on the hat, cursing Jefferson under her breath. She cursed Gold and drew on all of her anger and pain, just as he had taught her, trying to induce the hat's cooperation. It barely spun. It was useless. She was useless.
"What's wrong? Why isn't it working?" Emma asked urgently, eyes following the wraith as it let out another ear piercing scream. It was readying for another attack.
"I don't know! My magic… it's not working!" Regina cried in frustration.
"HURRY!" David shouted as he and Mary Margaret did their best with fire to hold the screeching wraith at bay.
Emma watched as the wraith swooped in at her parents, fear gripping her heart that she would lose them just as she found them. In her panic, she reached down and squeezed Regina's shoulder. "Your magic has to work!"
And it did. The hat began to spin violently.
"Back up!" Regina shouted, knowing the chasm sized portal that was going to be created. "It's working! Send the bastard through now!"
"Lure it this way!" shouted Emma as she stood purposefully in front of Regina.
Mary Margaret and David waved their torches, trying to corral the wraith towards the portal. Its wailed echoed in the room, unable to reach its mark and circled the room over and over again for an opening.
"Still wants you pretty bad, Regina. Time for a new tactic. HEY! CASPER!" Emma waved her hands over her head to get its attention. "Your meal ticket's behind me!"
Regina panicked, thinking this had all been an elaborate ruse. Emma was going to leave her to the wraith after all, goading it to come after her like that! She pushed away from the blonde, even if it would be foolish to try and face it on her own.
"Regina, no! Stay behind me!" yelled Emma. "Ah hell…"
Now that Regina broke off by herself, the wraith went after her full force. It barreled through David and Mary Margaret's torches, way off course from the actual portal.
"Shit." Emma ran after her and shoved Regina out of the wraith's flight path. Which worked brilliantly in their favor. The wraith circled wide and ended up too close to the portal! The swirling mists latched onto the specter and began to drag the entity closer.
Regina stared, terrified, the rune on her hand swollen and painful. It looked like she'd misjudged the Savior's intentions after all as Emma continued to work the wraith toward the portal. She felt foolish, but more frightened for her life!
David and Mary Margaret both breathed a sigh of relief that their daughter was safe but as they went to approach Emma, they watched as the wraith tried one last time to complete its mission. Black arms lashed out from vortex and grabbed the closest living thing it could find.
"Emma watch out!" howled David, but it was too late. He watched in terror as the wraith's hands grabbed his daughter's leg and began to drag her into the portal too!
"NO!" Regina cried out in alarm.
She tried to use her magic to force the wraith away from Emma, but it failed her again. In seconds, Emma was dragged through the portal. Regina barely heard Mary Margaret scream that she'd not lose her daughter again and watched her leap willingly into the portal.
"No!" Anguished, David ran towards the portal, leaping atop the barricade and ready to join his family. Instead the shepard belly flopped onto the cold floor just after the portal closed - a second too late.
Regina stared in horror at David. "They're gone…"
Regina's frown darkened as she recognized that she was not carrying anything that was distinctly Emma's.
She looked at Henry to confirm if he was or wasn't and he shook his head. "I don't."
I couldn't save her then… hell, it was my fault she even went through the portal, and now, I have no way of finding her here, she thought. If Emma's even here...
"But I have something." Neal came up front and held out his hand. "I don't know how this was able to cross over, but it should work."
Henry's eyes lit up with hope in seeing the swan keychain that his father had given Emma. "That's amazing!"
"Yes, it is remarkable because it should have remained where we came from." Belle gazed upon Neal sympathetically. "You obviously loved her very much."
He didn't say anything to acknowledge that, only focusing on Regina because the statement spoke for itself. It was hard enough to watch his father sacrifice himself, but now he lost his first love too. He accepted that Emma was with Regina and knew he didn't have a chance anymore. Not after what he did to ensure she completed her destiny, but he wanted Emma to be happy and he also wanted to be a part of Henry's life.
Regina gazed at Neal for a long, hard moment. She knew that Emma used to wear that keychain as a pendant; she remembered it on her when Emma had first come to town. It was clearly important to Neal that he'd kept it.
"Alright. Then, we need to go to my castle because I don't have the potion for a locator spell on me," she said after a long moment.
"How far's the castle?" inquired Henry.
"It's within walking distance for the others," Regina replied, "But we will be transporting there by magic."
Of course, being back in this environment, she felt every bit the queen again, and it would be no visible inconvenience to her to walk in the boots she now wore, much less this extravagant gown, but time was of the essence. And, while scared for Emma, she nearly felt the evil part too.
"Alright. We'll send word to the others as they arrive, to make for our castle," Snow said with a determined smile.
Our? Regina thought, her dark gaze boring into her.
"To have a place where everyone can meet, to figure out what we're going to do!" Snow hastened to add.
"Mom …" Henry whispered. "They're just trying to help."
She blinked and tore her gaze away from Snow. Regina closed her eyes for a moment, then looked to Henry. "You're right. I know. I'm just scared for your mom. We should all get moving since Snow and Emma had said the ogres are back. We all need to be at the castle before dusk."
"I'll round everyone up and we'll move out shortly." David looked at Neal and nodded. "Could use your help too."
"Yeah," he said and clutched the keychain in a vice like grip, not wanting to lose it. "Let's go."
"I will too!" Belle couldn't stand around in mourning when she could help out.
"Fine," Regina said with a sigh. "Come, Henry. We'll start for the castle."
He hugged his grandparents, father and Belle goodbye before giving his mother a strong one that was overdo. "We'll find her, Mom."
Regina hugged him back, hoping he was right. She pulled back and nodded seriously at Henry. "Take my hand and we'll use magic to cover most of the distance to the palace."
He did as asked, knowing that this was all-business mom he was talking to. "Let's go."