The Evil Queen's Chambers

Chapter Nine

The whole journey out of the castle was all a blur to Emma. She found herself in an emotional haze, similar to when she found out that Neal had sold her out to the police. There was a buzzing in her ears and nothing of the Enchanted Forest seemed to focus. Hook's voice didn't even cut through her shell, it was simply an endless noise. When she fell through the portal a few days prior, she had never expected anything of the sort to happen. She and Regina had sex, but not her Regina, the Evil Queen. Emma had admitted her love for her... Over and over...Where could she go from here? Everything was moving, the room was spinning and she suddenly felt the moist floor hit her cheek and then...darkness.

She woke to Hook shaking her, in visible distress, yelling "Swan!". There was a sharp buzzing in her ears. When she opened her eyes, everything seemed fuzzy. She looked up, and Hook was leaning over her with worry in his eyes. He started to come into focus and everything started to feel more human to Emma. She sat up.

"Back to normal now are we?" queried Hook sarcastically. His tone then changed, "I was worried Swan. We had been an hour into our escape and for ages you fell completely silent. I turned to you and you were about to faint. Emma, you blacked out."

Emma's stumble back into reality brought her so much pain, she felt like there was a tight fist around her heart, squeezing tightly. Her bottom lip quivered, and she looked up to Hook who was kneeling down at her, staring gormlessly. "I'm sorry, I need a moment," Emma uttered quietly.

It wasn't even five minutes before Hook pulled Emma up off the ground, "Look Swan, we have to go." Emma nodded, trying to pull herself together. "Can't we just summon Rumplestiltskin, won't he just transport us to wherever we need to be to go home?" Hook was about to dismiss this, but on reflection, decided Emma wasn't in a fit state to run any longer. "Alright, Swan. As you wish." Emma smiled. She might not love him like he wants her to, but she valued his friendship.

"RUMPLESTILTITSKIN" yelled Hook, staring into the distance.

Immediately Rumplestiltskin appeared, almost looking identical to when he was last summoned. He was sneering, with his green skin glistening. "I suppose you and Ms Swan wish to go home now?" Rumplestiltskin looked at Hook, then at Emma. On making eye contact with her, a high pitched, half awkward laugh seemed to trickle out. "You...feeling...okay, dearie?" Emma suddenly felt her strength return. Rolling her eyes, she said boldly, "I'm fine. I'd like to get home to my family, please." Rumplestiltskin put both his hands up at this mockingly, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Okay, as you wish, Ms Swan, but first," he added, "I will de glamourise you both. Even though, that glamouring spell seems rather pointless, as a certain someone saw through it anyway." With a wave of the hand he undid his spell, but Emma remained the same, as Regina had already changed her clothing. "I look devilishly handsome again," declared Hook, proudly.

With that, Rumplestiltskin transported Hook and Emma to a dark vault in which he keeps dark and unpredictable magic. The floor they landed on was grey and stony. Hook looked up and the vault was at least three-stories high, it looked monstrous. It was well lit, with candles in every corner. The walls were bricked, and there were no windows, entrapping all the objects within it.

Emma was stepping in and out of consciousness. She was fully awake and alert, but her thoughts kept drawing her back to Regina. The feeling of her warm body rubbing against hers. The shivers she felt as Regina crept down on her. The viewing of their memories together. The darkness leaving the Queen's eyes; the look Regina gives her back in Storybrooke.

Emma was forced to concentrate. Rumple's voice cut through the buzzing sound in Emma's ears. "I found out that only you two can re-open the portal, as it has to be the ones who entered through it." However, Rumple continued, "one of you needs to wield magic, as it is this wand that opens it." In his hand was an abnormally long wand. His right eyebrow raised, and he swirled the wand at Emma. "That would be you, dearie." He smirked. Emma was startled, "how did you know I had magic?" Rumple sniggered, then replied, "I didn't...not until...well... something made me realise."

Hook smiled at Emma. His smile then turned to hopelessness, as he declared, "but you've lost your magic love." Rumplestiltskin hopped towards them both, "well...not exactly." He laughed. "I believe your..." he paused, rolling the next word off his tongue, "encounter...with the Queen, brought out the small amount of magic left within you." Hook folded his arms and tried to appear nonchalant.

Emma nodded. She had thought the amount of mirrors that smashed so violently, couldn't have just been Regina. "I'll try." She nodded. Rumplestiltskin laughed exclaiming, "great!" In his pocket, Rumplestiltskin had created a forgetting potion of his own. Emma noticed it, and while pointing at it, declared "you need to drink that, first." Rumple's hand found the bottle, and sneering, he replied, "yes dearie, I know. Open the portal and I'll drink it."

Rumple handed the wand to Emma, and as she touched it, she thought of Henry, her family, and Regina. Emma thought back to her last thoughts in Storybrooke, that were to go back to New York and live her new life with Henry. No. She thought, "Storybrooke is my home." The wand started to glow white, and Rumplestiltskin giggled with delight at this. Suddenly, an orange, swirling portal, alike to a tornado, appeared in front of them. Hook nodded at Emma, and jumped straight into it. Rumplestiltskin drank his potion just as Emma dived into the portal. She was thinking about what her and Hook will tell her family about what happened.

*

A hard floor greeted Hook and Emma. They were thrown onto it violently, thanks to the portal. Emma groaned, and stood up. Hook had already got up himself, and was standing at the exit, staring out into the night. "Now we can talk," Hook half-smiled, looking at Emma. "Look," Emma began, sighing, "I really like you. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for Regina, and that I haven't for a while. I guess... It's hard to understand. She was the Evil Queen there, so yeah. I don't fully understand it either." Hook tilted his head, "but she was Regina too, Swan?" Emma nodded. "Yeah. She was. Is." Hook was visibly hurt. But patted her arm nicely, asking, "so where does this leave us?" Emma shrugged her shoulders, "well, thanks for coming for me, for risking your life. I don't see any reason why we can't be friends, Hook." She patted his arm back, and he tried to muster a smile. "Well then, lets try, Swan."

Emma would have continued to share this moment with him, only it hit her that if Henry or anyone had the book, their venture in the past may have been added to the story. She panicked. In a matter of seconds Emma had started to sprint towards Granny's Cafe, hoping to find her family and prevent them from reading it.

She stormed through Granny's Cafe, the entrance bell ringing as she rushed in. "Mom, Dad" she exclaimed, hugging them both, then Henry. "Look, I need that book." She declared, pointing at the book open on the table. Prince Charming raised his eyebrows, "Why? You didn't answer my calls, we were all worried." Emma nodded, replying, "me and Hook fell in the portal. But everything is ok now, I just need that book, I'll tell you later." With that, she sprinted out again, and in not looking where she was going, she ran directly into a woman, who smelled as sweet as fresh roses.

Regina.

Hand-in-hand with Robinhood, she stepped back, and gasped in an accusatory tone, "Emma!" Emma wanted to find Regina and talk to her. But this wasn't exactly how she wanted it to go. "Sorry, but I really need to speak to you, may I?" Emma asked, gesturing to Regina's hand in Robin's. Regina developed the face of someone who was deeply concerned. Robinhood let go of Regina's hand, and kissed her on the cheek. "See you later," he smiled, walking up to Granny's Cafe.

Emma walked up to the outside table and chairs, pulling one out for Regina, and gesturing her to sit down. "What is it dear?" asked Regina, sitting herself down in the chair opposite Emma. Her eyes were once again glistening in the light, looking down intently at Emma. Emma took a deep breath, and began. "Well, we fell down the time portal. And that's when it began. I guess I could start with what happened in the Evil Queen's Chambers," she smiled while saying this.

Regina laughed, and as she lent forward to listen, her leg touched Emma's. "Oops, sorry!" she exclaimed.

...