Flashback...
Charlotte had always been told that she was a combination of her parents. At this present moment, she was pretty sure her mother was showing more than her father. She had been training with her Aunt Zelena to perfect her magic but she hadn't been able to move the smallest rock, let alone cast a simple teleportation spell. She had just failed at another attempt to lift the rock she had been practicing with. She let out a groan of frustration.
"It's alright. It takes practice." Zelena said, trying to comfort her niece.
"I've been practicing!" Charlotte snapped. She stomped through the clearing they were practicing in and sat on a log. Zelena walked over and sat next to her. "I can't do this."
"Yes you can." Zelena told her, "Charlotte, you are the strongest girl I know."
"I don't feel so strong. All I feel like is a weak girl who couldn't even protect her parents." Charlotte said, hopeless, "I can't do this without them." Charlotte began to cry as Zelena wrapped an arm around her. Then, a realization hit her.
"What if you didn't have to?" Zelena thought out loud. Charlotte looked up and saw her aunt's look on her face.
"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked.
"I once tried to enact a spell. A spell that could let travel through time. What if I enact this spell for you?" Zelena suggested as the two stood up, "You could go back in time before Rumple showed up and stop him from killing Regina and Robin." Charlotte gasped at her aunt's words. She could see her parents again.
"How do we do that?"
End Flashback...
After Zelena's grand entrance, everyone was in the Charmings loft discussing the newest revelation that has occurred.
"Why, in any time or place, would we trust Zelena?!" Regina snapped, "She is not to be trusted. Not only is she wicked, she's insane."
"She's not like that in the future." Charlotte retorted.
"Because she helped you enact the Time Travel Spell?" Regina retorted back.
"No Mom, because she's family." Charlotte said, trying to calm her mother down.
"How does Zelena ever end up changing?" Robin asked, just as mad as Regina.
"Well if I'm being honest, you never told me. You don't tell me a lot of things about your past." Charlotte snapped back.
"Okay. Everyone needs to calm down." Henry said.
"Henry's right." Snow agreed, "We are not going to get anywhere by biting each other's heads off." Everyone took a deep breath as Regina spoke up,
"I'm sorry Charlotte." Regina said to her daughter.
"I am too." Robin said, "We should know better because things are different in your time."
"No, I should be the one apologizing to you. I know things are not said for a reason." Charlotte apologized, "The main thing is now Aunt Zelena is on the Dark One's side and we need to hurry before they find the Author."
"Well that would be a lot easier if we knew where the Author was." Emma said.
"I know where he is." Everyone in the room stared at Charlotte.
"Where is he?" Henry asked.
"I need to see the page that you found of the door in the Sorcerer's Mansion." Henry went over to his bag and pulled out the page with the door drawn on it. "This page is where the Author is."
"But we looked everywhere and we couldn't find the door." Henry said as Charlotte held up the page for her whole family.
"That's because this door is the door that the Author is in." Charlotte clarified, "The Author is in this page. We just need to find the key." Emma took the page from Charlotte as everyone continued to stare as they realized who they were looking for was right in front of them.
"Until we find the key, what are we going to about Zelena?" Killian asked.
"I know what to do with her." Charlotte remarked, "I'm going to talk with her and get her to join us."
"Hell no!" Regina exclaimed, "I'm not letting her anywhere near you."
"Mom, you don't know her like I do. I know what she wants and I can get through to her." Charlotte encouraged.
"Zelena is not to be trusted, at least not now." Robin said trying to compromise.
"The best thing we can do to stop the Queens of Darkness is to give them a chance at happiness." Charlotte scoffed as she stormed out of the room.
"I'll go talk to her." Robin said as he followed her. Robin found her in the bedroom upstairs sitting on the bed. Charlotte looked up noticing her father was there. "Are you alright?"
"You just don't see her the way I do." Charlotte said, "Aunt Zelena has good inside her, she just thinks she has to be wicked because nobody loves her. If we show her somebody does care about her then she will see the good in herself." Robin sighed,
"Your right. There is good in everyone. But Zelena is dangerous. We have to be careful. Your mother and I don't want to see you get hurt." Robin said, trying to convince, "So can you please trust us and try not to go after Zelena?" Charlotte looked into her father's eyes and nodded.
"Okay, I won't go after her." Charlotte conceded.
"Thank you." Robin said. He wrapped his arm around his daughter and kissed her forehead. He got up and walked down the stairs to join the others. As soon as she was sure her father was gone, Charlotte pulled out the bracelet that her Aunt Zelena gave her.
"That doesn't mean I can't go talk to her."
———
Charlotte followed the bracelet as it floated through the woods with the location spell she casted. She had made it to a clearing in the woods as the bracelet stopped in the clearing and fell to the ground. Charlotte and bent down and picked it up. "Aunt Zelena!" Charlotte shouted. Charlotte shouted several times for her aunt but she received no answer. She was about to give up before she heard someone move from behind a tree.
"Looking for me?" Zelena asked, rhetorically, "What do you want?"
"I came to talk to you." Charlotte answered.
"And does your mummy know you're here?" Zelena asked, smirking. Charlotte stayed silent at the question. "Ah. Going rogue. I like it."
"Aunt Zelena. I know you think that you have to align yourself with the Dark One to get what you want, but you don't need him."
"Oh really? And what do I want?" Zelena asked, sarcastically.
"To be loved." Charlotte said, certain, "You think nobody loves you, so you have to be wicked to make them love you. You don't have to do this. You can have people that love you without being wicked." Charlotte said. She was determined to convince her aunt that she could have love. Charlotte slowly walked towards her aunt as she held out her hand. Zelena's expression told her she was getting through to her. Just when she was only a few feet away from her, Charlotte suddenly had trouble breathing. She felt like her throat was being cut off from her lungs. She was then lifted up into the air while she continued to struggle for air. Rumple came out from behind a tree, with his hand raised, along with the rest of his entourage.
"Well done dearie. You played your part well." Rumple applauded as Charlotte gasped from the lack of air.
"Aunt Zelena." she choked out, "Please." Zelena looked down and faced Rumple as she smirked,
"Just doing my part."
———
Henry busted into his Mom's office and he joined his grandparents, his moms, Killian, and Robin as he ran in.
"Has anyone seen Charlotte?" Henry asked, gasping for air.
"We thought she was with you, Kid." Emma asserted.
"I haven't seen her since yesterday when we talked about Zelena." Henry said, "I've looked at the house, the woods and her campsite and I can't find her anywhere."
"Don't worry. We'll find her." Snow reassured her grandson as she turned to see a worried Regina and Robin.
"Where could she have gone?" Robin asked. Suddenly, there was a tapping coming from the window. The group turned to see a raven pecking at the door. Snow hurried over and opened the window for the raven. The bird flew in and landed on Regina's shoulder. Regina noticed there was a message tied to it and slipped the note off the raven's leg. The raven flew back out the window and Snow closed the window again as Regina read the note out loud.
"Dear Heroes,
We have Charlotte. If you want to see her again, meet us by the clock tower at 5:00, with the page of the Author's door.
Or else, say goodbye to Charlotte.
-Queens Of Darkness"
Robin took the note from Regina as he read it again to himself.
"How did she get captured?" Emma asked.
"She must've tried to get through to Zelena." Henry inferred. Robin crumpled up the note as Regina got an angry look on her face.
"Those witches are gonna pay for trying to hurt her." Robin grunted as he grabbed his bow and arrows. Regina followed him as they were about to leave the office. Snow rushed up to them and stopped them.
"Wait. We can't be too rash. If we go in there fire blazing, that'll just get Charlotte killed." Snow said, "I want to save her as much as you do, but we need a plan."
"How did they even know about the Author's page?" David asked.
"Gold must have been spying on us with a listening spell." Regina guessed, "It doesn't matter. We're going to get our daughter back. And I know who can help us deal with Gold." she said as she turned to Robin. The heroes got their weapons ready and went to go save Charlotte.
———
The heroes made their way down the street. They walked forward as they stopped in front of Zelena, Cruella, Ursula, Maleficent, and Rumple holding Charlotte with his magic.
"Hello everyone." Rumple greeted, "Nice of you to join us." Charlotte was trying to hold on for air as Rumple's spell was keeping her in a tight grip.
"If you lay another finger on her, I'm going to..." Robin said as he pointed his bow and arrow directly at Rumple.
"You'll what?" Rumple interrupted, "Nothing can harm me dearie."
"Except this." Belle came from within the group holding up the infamous Dark One Dagger. "Dark One, I command you to release Charlotte Mills-Locksley at once." she ordered. However, Rumple didn't flinch from holding Charlotte.
"Sorry, Belle. Not real." Rumple then held up the real dagger in his other hand as Belle broke into tears as she fell back within the group. "Now, to business. The page." Regina turned to Henry as he slowly took out the page from his book. Regina took the page from him and slowly walked towards Rumple. She handed the page and Rumple dropped the spell holding Charlotte. She took a gasp of air as Robin rushed forward and pulled her towards the group. "Thank you for your cooperation."
"That page is useless without the key." Regina snapped at the group.
"We don't need to worry about that dearie." Rumple said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. "Thanks to your daughter's extensive research we knew exactly where to find this."
"Aunt Zelena." Charlotte mustered out, "This isn't who you are. You don't need them. You already have people who love you."
"Now that's enough of that." Maleficent said as she started choking Charlotte. The group tried to stop her but they were pushed back by Rumple.
"I can prove it to you. You just need to open your eyes to see it. It is not your destiny to be wicked. You make your own." Maleficent's grip grew tighter as Charlotte was brought to her knees. "I know that you feel like you can't get love any other way, but I love you."
"Enough!" Maleficent yelled. Charlotte shrieked in pain but she kept going.
"I love you Aunt Zelena!" Charlotte screamed. Zelena's eyes widened as Charlotte screamed in pain. The heroes were struggling to get back up from Rumple's spell.
"Stop it." Zelena snapped as she turned to face opposite from the witches.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Ursula asked.
"Writing my own destiny." In a glow of green magic, Zelena blasted the witches and Rumple back. As Robin and Regina ran over to check on Charlotte, Rumple stood up and faced Zelena.
"Wrong move, dearie." With a wave of his hands, Rumple and his allies disappeared. Zelena turned back around to see Charlotte being comforted by her family as she held her throat in relief. Charlotte noticed Zelena standing off to the side. She politely dismissed her family as she walked up to her aunt.
"Aunt Zelena?" Charlotte questioned. Zelena looked up at her niece and gave her a small smile. Charlotte exorted relief as she crashed into her aunt. Zelena, hesitant at first, hugged her back as the rest of the family came up behind them. The two ceased the hug as Charlotte walked over to her parents and wrapped them in a hug. They quickly asked if she was okay and once again she reassured them they she was fine, Regina walked up to Zelena.
"Regina... I-I'm... so sorry for what I've done. To you and to your family. I only hope one day you can forgive me." Zelena said sincerely. Regina stood silent for a second, but then gave her sister a soft smile.
"It might take some work, but you are family. And we are all about second chances." Regina said. Zelena nodded in thanks as the two sisters joined the group.
"What do we do now?" Charlotte asked, "They have the page."
"We'll figure something out. After all, we have one of their own now." Regina said acknowledging Zelena. The group smiled and laughed as they thought about what's to come.
A/N: Hi readers! SO SORRY for the late update! Finals have been CrAzY! I only hope this makes up for it. I wanted to incorporate Zelena as a hero because I feel like since the very beginning she just needed someone to prove that they loved her in order for her to see the light in her. I hope you guys like this chapter. If you like vote and comment please! #outlawqueenforever Love you all!
-@ShineBright03