Realm - The land of second chances (Storybrooke)
Time - 12 years ago
Regina awoke to an empty bed.
The whole house was silent, and considering they had three babies now, moments like that were few and far between. Regina sighed and rolled over, expecting to find Robin.
But she didn't. His side of the bed was cold, like he hadn't been there for a long time.
Her first thought was that she had dreamed it all. That the curse was never broken, and she never got him back, but after checking that the kids were, in fact, there, she eliminated that theory.
Her second thought was that he'd gone to the shop, so she fed the kids and took them out for a walk in the pushchair, leaving Robin a note.
But when she got back from that walk an hour and a half later and he still wasn't home, she began to worry.
She started looking for any note that he may have left her and came up with nothing.
She called Emma to see if she and Killian had seen him and came up with nothing.
She went to Granny's to see if he'd gone there, and she left with a cheeseburger and no information. She couldn't even get any onion rings because of some stupid shortage!
By six thirty she had to come to the conclusion that something had happened. Something out of his control, and there was one person who would definitely have something to do with it.
She would have to talk to Zelina.
Realm - The land of second chances (Storybrooke)
Time - present
As soon as the door slammed, she regretted what she said.
He was adjusting. She knew that, and she couldn't expect him to just accept that he's been lied to his whole life. It wasn't fair.
She reached for Mr Snuggles - her dad's stuffed bear that she and Leia used to play with - and hugged him to her chest. "I've done it again Mr snuggles." She whispered as a tear slid down her cheek, recalling the last time she'd let go of the happiness and patience she prided herself on.
She shook her head. That wasn't going to happen again. She'd never feel that crushing despair again. She just had to hold onto her smile.
Hope stood and placed Mr snuggles back in his box with the rest of the toys they didn't use any more and wiped her tears.
When Leopold returned, she would apologise and make sure he got the help he needed.
Only he didn't return, and after a few hours of staring out of the window riddled with raindrops, she started to wonder if something was keeping him.
Or someone.
~♡~
Leopold unsheathed his sword, incredibly grateful he'd decided to take it down with him into the basement.
The knights moved closer, brandishing wepons made of a dense black material. He considered declaring himself as the price of Misthaven. However, he had a feeling that wouldn't make a difference. He was no prince in this world. No one would care if he died.
No. He would not die. Not here.
His first thought was that these were the fabled Evil Queens black knights except, they looked nothing like how his parents had described them.
Their amour had sharper edges and seemed to reflect the light of his sword almost as if they were made of tiny peaces of shattered glass. They did seem to be surrounded by an air of dark magic, but somehow, he knew that it wasn't the same dark magic as the Queen's black nights would've caried.
He counted twenty-three approaching him.
The first one that got to him raised it's sword in a clunky manner and had terrible form.
Leopold thought that maybe this wouldn't be that difficult. He might live to see another day.
He swung his sword and severed the knights torso from his legs. However, instead of blood and a body, the Knight literally shattered into pieces!
They were made of glass!
Leopold watched in horror as the peices of the Knight lifted themselves into the air and reformed into at least five new suits of armour in under two seconds.
He didn't have time to panic before the next one was on him. On instinct, he parried its attack and cut its head off. Then he cursed.
Again, it reformed. He was swarmed. He could do nothing but kill them or be killed. He would tire eventually, and they would keep replicating themselves. He was stuck.
He also noticed that as he killed them, the new knights that formed were better and stronger at swordplay than before.
There were lots of words he could use right now, and there wasn't one that wouldn't get him into huge trouble with his mother.
One of the knights managed to rake his sword down Leopold's right arm. Fantastic, he thought, the best place to be injured.
Just as he had come to the conclusion that he was going to die in the middle of the forest and his body would never be found, the Knight infront of him fell forward, a dagger embedded in his back.
Leopold watched in amazement as the glass shards that shattered upon contact with the dagger, stayed in the ground and disapated into dust.
He looked up and found himself staring at Hope. She drew her own sword and started killing all the knights that came at her. As in, she actually killed them!
Next to him, another one dropped to the floor, an arrow embedded in its neck.
He heard a thump behind him, and then someone grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards the bank he'd fallen down earlier.
He craned his neck and caught a glimpse of Robs, the angry girl that was friends with Leia.
"GO, you'll be safe at the top. That's where the barrier is." She shouted, turning back to where the battle was raging.
"Wait," he called, "What are they? How are you killing them? What barrier?" He had so many questions he couldn't get them all out.
She shot a few more down with her arrows as she made a beeline for the nearest tree.
"ROLAND!" She shouted when she reilised Leopold hadn't followed her orders.
He realised it wasn't just Hope and Robs fighting. Leia was there too, making quick work of any Knight who crossed her path, and Leopold had to admit her swordsmanship was jmpressive.
There were the other two boys from that lunch table as well, fighting back to back.
The one who must have been Roland glanced over at Robs as she pointed at Leopold before scaling up a tree like a squirrel.
Roland started making his way over to Leopold as he just stared half in shock at the battle raging around him.
Leopold was so distracted that he didn't notice the Knight until it was just about to take off his head. He fumbled with his sword, but Roland stabbed it from behind, and it shattered at his feet.
"Thank you." Leopold spluttered.
"You owe me a sprite at Granny's." Roland said in reply, and although Leopold didn't really know what he meant, he was happy to oblige and nodded in agreement. "There's a barrier they can't get past at the top of that hill," Roland continued indicating with his sword to the bank Leopold fell down, "We made an agreement a while back that the Shatter Knights can have this part of the forest, they don't really like keeping their word though so we put the barrier up."
Another one ran up behind Roland, and before Leopold could shout a warning, Roland had turned around and stabbed it in the chest, turning it to a pile of glass. Leopold wondered not for the first time what was special about this group of people. Why could they kill them and he couldn't?"
"What are they." He asked Roland, who was in the middle of fighting a couple more who were ganging up on him.
"We call them Shatter Knights." Roland had succeeded in killing three, but more just kept coming at him. Looking around, Leopold saw that the others were fairing no better.
Henry and Hope were now standing back to back. Henry was using a sword, but it looked as if Hope had run out of daggers to throw and was now blasting the things with white hot bursts of magic. The pair were surrounded, and there was no way they'd be able to hold out much longer.
Leia was swarmed, although she held them at bay well while weilding two swords.
Robs would be no help from her perch in a tree as she was too busy picking off the pile that was trying to climb up to her.
"How are you killing them?" He asked.
"They can only be killed by light magic. All of our wepons are enchanted. That's the only way they stay dead." Roland shouted back, now fully overwhelmed.
They were coming for Leopold now, and he wasn't going to be able to fend them off. He could try and do some magic, but he'd never been able to summon any before they killed him. Sure, people kept telling him he had it, but he wasn't so sure. He'd done no magic at all in Emma's class and couldn't even master the 'simple' spells while Leia did them effortlessly.
"Just get out, get to the barrier, I'll take care of them!" Leia shouted from somewhere far off.
"NO ABSOLUTELY NOT." Hope screamed from her position.
"Leia, we can find another way." Roland said as he sliced the head off another Shatter Knight.
"There's no time. I'm sorry. I love you all." Leia said, looking directly at Hope and throwing her swords to the ground, "HEY, YOU WANT ME COME AND GET ME!" She took off running up the other side of the bank she was closest to going deeper into enemy territory. For whatever reason, most of them followed after her. The ones that stayed were quickly slain.
Once she was sure everyone else was safe, Hope started to high tail it after Leia, who was running allong the top of the bank, so she was still in sight.
Robs jumped down from her tree and grabbed Hope from behind, "We need to go Hope, you know her, she won't change her mind."
Leopold and Roland ran over to the girls. Once they got closer, Leopold replied that Hope was crying.
"She can't, Robs, you know she can't," Hope started to say as both Robs and Henry dragged her towards where the barrier was, "SHE COULD DIE IT COULD KILL HER!"
Leopold was sure that they weren't talking about Shatter Knights now, this was something else, Leia had a plan. A deadly one.
As soon as they all managed to get Hope behind the barrier, it solidified. She started banging on the magical wall, screaming.
Leopold heard Leia start to sing. She screamed some kind of upbeat pop song. How she managed that while running, he didn't know.
She'd run into the clearing now. Heavily surrounded. Whatever plan she had, it'd better be brilliant.
White sparkes popped around where her feet were planted into the floor, and her hands started to glow faintly. Leopold was sure he was seeing things when her whole body started to glow.
Hope screamed louder and banged with even more force.
Leia shut her eyes and continued singing. As she did, the glow around her got brighter, and the Shatter Knights began to back off in fear.
As he watched the light around Leia exploded, expanding outwards and vaporising all the Shatter Knights. He could hear Leia screaming and remebered what Roland had said, 'they can only be killed by light magic.' That didn't just apply to enchanted swords. Leia was using pure light magic, except this was different from just summoning cups from across the room.
If magic had a self-destruct button, then Leia just pushed it.
When the light dimmed, the barrier Hope was banging on gave out.
Leopold blinked the spots out of his eyes as Hope ran down the bank towards where Leia was lying. The others were just behind her.
Leopold ran after them. They all crouched next to Leia, whose clothes were smouldering slightly. She lay unconscious on the floor. At least Leopold hoped she was unconscious and not... well, dead.
A surge of guilt suddenly overwhelmed him. He was the reason she was possibly dying. He was the reason they had all come here.
Hope leaned over Leia's body, checking her pulse. Relief took over her body as she faced her friends and muttered, "She's still alive."
Leopold also felt relief overcome him, Leia and he may have never gotten along but she was willing to risk her life coming here to save him and he definitely did not want her to die because of him.
Hope and Roland both grabbed one arm and started to haul her up the hill.
He still had so many questions as the six of them made their way through the forest.
Why did the barrier solidify when Hope wanted to get through? What did Leia even do, and how was it possible? How did they find him in the first place?
Between them, they managed to haul Leia through the forest and back towards the Jones residence.
The lights in the kitchen and living room were on, and they shone through the curtains, revealing the sillouette of someone pacing back and forth in front of it.
They carried her through the front gate and up the stairs to the porch. Henry ran ahead and knocked on the door.
It flew open to reveal an incredibly worried Killian Jones, Emma just behind him.
Killian ran to help Hope and Roland, taking Leia from them as if she were a small child once again, "What happened?" He asked, and Leopold was surprised that there wasn't a note of anger in his voice, as if his children sneaking out didn't anger him.
Maybe it didn't, but in that moment, what Leopold saw wasn't Captain Jones, the fearsome pirate.
He saw Killian Jones, the father.
A/N: I'm sorry for being absent this was a hirid chaper to Wright I've had to redo the entire storyline if the past because it was too long and I've had GCSES so I couldn't write then. I'm back now tho and I still love this story.
Bye for now
-A