Emma held out a picture of Henry towards Aurora, saying, "The boy you saw in your dream- is that him?"
Aurora took the picture from Emma's hand, looking at it closely before saying the words that Ella was hoping would never happen.
"Yes, this is Henry."
Mary Margaret stood up, started to pace as Ella stood up and walked over to the fire pit, where she sat down and put her head in her hands while she heard Emma say, "That's impossible. It's a dream. How could you dream of my son?"
"I have no idea" Aurora said, shaking her head.
Mary Margaret suddenly spoke up saying, "Maybe it wasn't a dream."
"What?" Emma asked as she stood up, facing Mary Margaret
Aurora stood up beside Emma and Ella who was still sitting down watching the group, "That room. I've been there." Mary Margaret said
"When I told you about it, you didn't ay anything," Aurora said slightly hurt from what Ella could see
Mary Margaret defended herself saying, "You were terrified, I didn't want to make things worse by telling you it might be real."
"A room in a dream is real?" Mulan questioned as she stood beside Ella who had her head rested on her knee.
Mary Margaret turned around and said. "The sleeping curse It has to be! I went through it, Aurora went through it-"
Mary Margaret was cut off by Emma saying, "Henry's been through it because I wouldn't believe him."
"Emma." Mary Margaret said softly
"What else did you lie about?" Aurora said boldly, Ella looked up, impressed
Mary Margaret looked slightly shocked as she said, "I was- I wasn't lying. I was protecting you"
"It's a netherworld." Ella said standing up
"What are you talking about?" Emma said glancing at Ella
"Gold once told me that when people go under the sleeping curse their soul travels to a netherworld where it resides until awoken. Now this world is between life and death and it's very real. However even when the curse is broke. Sometimes in sleep the victims find their way back to that world." Ella explained, whilst sitting back down on the log.
"Why does Gold tell you things like that?" Emma said sceptically.
"Villains, share things." Ella said with a shrug
Emma glared at Ella then turned back to Aurora and said, "What did he say? Henry? In the dream?"
"He just said his name and then I woke up, and it was over." Aurora said quietly
"Emma it's going to be okay." Mary Margaret looked to her daughter with a smile
Mulan and Ella shared a confused look then turned back to the pair as Emma said, "We are so far from okay."
"No. We have a way home now."
Ella scrunched up her eyebrows and walked over to the rest of the group saying, "We have a compass, and the wardrobe ashes are still with the horrible excuse of a human that is Cora. Trust me any attempt to steal from her would be suicidal."
"Not anymore. We can stop her." Mary Margaret said as she looked at Ella, noticing that she, for a moment acted scared.
"How?" Mulan said
"Please explain for the people you aren't inside you overly optimistic head." Ella said with a smirk.
Mary Margaret gave Ella a look which Ella rolled her eyes to as Mary Margaret said, "I don't know. But I know someone who does."
"Rumpelstiltskin, he'll know a way." Ella said catching on
"Henry, we can talk to him. Now we can communicate," Emma realized.
"Wait, wait!" Aurora said backing up from the group.
"Oh yeah, Princess you're going back to sleep." Emma ordered
. . . .
Henry shot up from the bed saying, "They're alive! They're alive!"
David shot up from his chair, saying, "Who? Who's alive?"
"Ella, my mom and Snow" Henry explained
"All of them?" Will questioned walking into the apartment with a take away from Granny's
Henry nodded in response and David and Will shared a confused look and Will shrugged his shoulders.
"I told you, kid, I told you." David replied with a smile
"Was it that woman who told you this? What did she tell you?" Regina asked
Henry looked between the three of them saying, "Her name's Aurora, and she said they're on their way home but someone is in their way. Someone they need us to help them stop. Someone only Mr Gold knows how to defeat."
"Who?" Regina asked the question that David and Will were thinking.
"Your mother." Henry said looking at Regina
They all turned to Will as he dropped the take away on the floor and quickly walked out of the apartment.
. . . .
"How close are we? Henry could already be waiting in that... netherworld," Emma asked as she stepped over a log. She was carrying the bag with the tent's and blankets in, Ella was in front of her Sword strapped to her belt, bow in hand and quiver over her shoulder.
Ella was very tired, having not slept in a while
"No, we planned to meet back there in two hours." Aurora corrected her
Mary Margaret smiled as she said, "We're not going to leave him waiting."
"Yeah but what if-"
Aurora cut Emma off saying, "-He was fine"
"There," Ella said cutting off their conversation as she nodded towards a small area on the top of a hill, "That looks like... relatively safe high ground."
"Aurora, you'll settle in and find Henry, get the information we need from Rumpelstiltskin." Mary Margaret ordered
"Do it fast in and out it's still dangerous out here." Ella said resting her hand on the hilt of her sword
. . . .
"Ella, tell them that she can't go in again." Mulan said walking up to Ella who was sitting at the edge of the camp next to a pile of fire wood she had collected.
"I can't, do you really think they'll listen to me? To Emma I'm eight years younger than her but in reality I'm her older sister. I have no power over here. If she was raised here I would've because I was and looked older and every where I went there was someone scared of me. Now there's no one and I look like I'm twenty when I am actually a lot older than that and I'm dying, and Mary Margaret seems to forget that I am also her daughter."
Ella shrugged as she continued, "It's not like I want to be her daughter. She feels responsible for me because she looked after me for three years during the curse."
"I thought the curse lasted twenty-eight years?" Mulan questioned
Ella scoffed, "Yeah, I lived in other places for twenty-five of those years."
"You need to get that power back by being as harsh as necessary because you and I both know they can't keep going in there." Mulan said walking off
"Oh trust me I'm getting it back." Ella said to herself
. . . .
Ella dropped the logs onto the ground next to the fire, and walked towards her spot at the camp but stopped as she heard Emma say, "Ella, fix the fire I don't know how"
Ella looked over to Mulan, who was sitting next to the sleeping Aurora, with a smirk.
Ella kept walking over to her stuff, Ella was never one for taking orders and just because Emma was the Savior did not mean she had any power of her.
"Ella, did you hear me?" Emma asked looking over at Ella
The brunette looked at Emma as she sat down beside her things and said, "Of course I did, I'm a werewolf I have better ears than all of you put together."
"Then why aren't you fixing the fire?"
Mary Margaret nervously looked towards her daughters knowing that they are the polar opposites of each other.
"You want a fire get your mum to teach you, I'm not helping you." Ella said throwing her daggers into the dirt in front of her.
Emma took a deep breath and said, "Please, Anna"
"My name is Ella for the last time and you are perfectly capable." Ella said enjoying getting Emma angry.
It looked like she was succeeding in doing just that, as Emma walked towards the smirking girl.
"Emma, stop!" Mary Margaret stopping Emma in her tracks, "She's not the character that you know, She hasn't killed anyone in a while and quite honestly I think she is itching to."
"Honestly, since she's been here she has been quite a bitch."
Emma was cut off by Ella standing up and walking towards Emma saying, "Because that's who I am, I am only 'Anna' for Henry, so you might want to stay on my good side. I could kill twenty armed guards in less than five minutes you do not want to make an enemy of me Emma Swan!"
Ella winced as she knew that the curse was spreading again, and quickly turned around and walked over to her zone to sharpen her sword.
After a few minutes they heard a twig snap.
Ella immediately jumped up and loaded her bow before Emma could say, "What was that?"
Ella looked around, having a bad feeling
Then she saw it
"Rise" Ella whispered
"What?" Mary Margaret said standing next to Ella
"It was something Cora used to do, slaughter villages, take their hearts then say to one, rise. Basically we're dealing with the bloody walking dead."
"Mulan... get her awake now!" Ella yelled as one of the dead literally launched itself at Ella.
She quickly dodged it's sword and ran it through with her smile saying, "Missed that, even if they are already dead."
Emma didn't like what Ella had said, "No! Keep her asleep, she needs to talk to Henry. "
Ella rolled her eyes after re-killing two more before shouting, "We need to leave, now, we can't do that if she's asleep!"
"No! you can't" Emma said moving in between Aurora and Mulan.
Ella's face became murderous as she slashed the man's head off in one go, "Off with his head."
Emma gulped as Ella said, "Mulan. get her up, now!"
Mulan quickly nodded and moved around Emma shaking Aurora awake as Emma got tackled , making the compass fall from her hands.
Ella finished beheading the rest of the walking dead, whilst the other two were having a conversation, probably about where Mulan was. So when they turned around she was surrounded by multiple body parts. Ella stepped over the bodies and walked past the women saying,
"Come on, we don't have all day." Mary Margaret and Emma looked at each other mostly in fear, before following her, leaving all their stuff as it had blood on it.
. . . .
Ella, Mary Margaret, Emma and Mulan were walking in the forest heading towards the island, when the pain shot up Ella's right arm this time.
"Oh god!" She said leaning against tree, as the others kept walking not knowing that she had stopped. She shut her eyes to block out the pain but when she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the enchanted forest she was in Neverland
"What?" She said, looking down at herself realising that she was in Neverland clothes: grey dirty trousers, a khaki green t-shirt, a black leather jacket, combat boots a mountain of leather bracelets on her wrists and the moonstone ring that Peter had given her.
"This isn't real, the ring is in Neverland." She said to herself knowing that it was a hallucination
"You'll go mad without him, just as he'll go mad without you." She heard a voice say
She span around to see that there was no one in the jungle, just her.
"Get out of my head!" She yelled
"Ella?" She heard, It sounded like Mary Margaret
"You will die and he's not going to know!" The voice said
"Ella?" That one was Mulan
"Are you okay." Hearing Emma she snapped out of it, and Emma jumped back seeing that Ella was looking at her with yellow eyes, Ella shook her head and her eyes turned back to normal.
"You okay?" Mulan said as she stayed back whilst the others had walked off.
"It's getting worse, I just hallucinated for the first time." Ella said walking past Mulan.
. . . .
After a few minutes of walking, a crow landed on Mary Margaret's shoulder.
Ella and Emma's eyes widened as the bird started making noises.
Ella was leaning up against a tree, knowing who sent that bird as Mulan held a knife towards the bird.
"Wait." Mary Margaret said, holding out her hand,
"Cora. We have until sundown to bring her the compass. If we don't she'll kill Aurora." She explained what the bird had said
"Give it to me!" Mulan said immediately.
Emma pulled back saying, "Hold on Mulan... Just give us a minute to consider."
"There's nothing to consider! A compass is not worth Aurora's life." Mulan snapped
Mary Margaret stepped forwards, saying, "We need a plan to save Aurora and keep the compass."
"Do you know what my opinion is?" Ella said stepping forward
"No and we don't want to know" Emma countered
"Well I'm going to tell you anyway." She said with a sweet smile, "I say we let Aurora die, find a way to get to another realm I don't know... Wonderland then we can use a looking glass to get home."
"My vow to Phillip was to protect Aurora that promise is all that is left of him, so it shall be done." Mulan said, completely ignoring Ella, and trying to grab the compass.
Emma held onto the compass saying, "Hey, I climbed a beanstalk for this compass. You go get your own!"
"Give it to me!" Mulan growled
Ella watched in amusement as Mary Margaret looked at her with pleading eyes. She sighed and stepped forwards, forcing the two women apart with a shove.
"Give us a few hours, if we haven't killed Cora by then you can have the compass." Ella negotiated
"You can't hope to defeat her," Mulan said with a glare, "We no longer have the dark ones assistance."
"Yes we do." Mary Margaret said stepping forwards.
"How, Aurora's gone."
"Aurora isn't the only one who has been under a sleeping curse." Ella said catching on, "She can go back to that netherworld."
"The door to that place is closed you said it yourself." Mulan said looking at Mary Margaret
"There may be a way, a way for me to go back into a deep slumber one that can let me access it again."
"Another sleeping curse?" Emma said, worried
Mary Margaret said immediately, "No, not another curse. I don't need one, I've been under already. I need to go into a sleep where my natural defences slip away. Where my mind stops protecting me."
"How?"
"Your poppy powder." Ella said looking at Mulan, "If she inhales that then she should go into a deep enough sleep."
"I used the last of it for the Giant." Mulan explained
"Then make more, I know of a place where it might grow. It's far from here though." Ella said
"Can we make it by sundown?" Mary Margaret asked
Mulan, knowing where this place was nodded slowly saying, "If we hurry."
. . . .
"Once we cross this ridge, we'll be near the Woods of the Dead. The last poppies in this realm have taken seed there." Mulan said as she cut through some more branches
Ella who was next to her said, "Brilliant name very... encouraging."
Mary Margaret and Emma were quite far behind so Mulan asked, "Are you going to tell them about your arms?"
"And say what, Ella Scarlett is dying because of a fail safe and she can't break it because she can no longer travel realms, Yeah, I was thinking I'm never going to tell them." Ella said as Mulan stopped to look at her "They wouldn't care."
"They do care about you, you just don't realise it." Mulan said softly
Ella sighed and said, "Doubt it, let it go please."
. . . .
Ella looked down at the poopy and looked at Mary Margaret in confusion when she said, "It's beautiful."
"I'll use my dagger to crush the seeds." Mulan said as she pulled her dagger out of her belt, "We're doing this the old fashioned way."
As Mulan started crushing up the seeds, Ella looked around walked over to a tree, grabbing a branch before pulling herself up onto the branch. She then climbed up the tree until she was at least ten feet off the ground.
"The powder is nearly ready." Mulan said looking up at Ella with wide eyes
"How long will the affects last?" Mary Margaret said getting comfortable at the bottom of the tree
"It's difficult to say. Maybe an hour, not much less?" Mulan guessed
"She shouldn't need much time provided Henry is in there when she is." Ella said whilst carving drawings into the tree.
"I'll be right here, say hi to my son for me." Emma said as she held out her hand for Mary Margaret to hold.
Mary Margaret took the hand with a smile as she said, "Ella you there?"
"I haven't moved." Ella said getting comfy in the tree, but not comfy enough for her to fall asleep.
"I just want to know your here."
"Like I said I haven't moved, and I'm not going to." Ella said back
Mary Margaret smiled up at the tree then nodded to Mulan, who walked towards with the powder in her hand. She then crouched down and blew the powder onto Mary Margaret successfully putting her to sleep.
A few minutes later, Emma said, "Ella?"
Ella looked down from the tree and said, "What, Swan."
"How long has it been since you slept?"
"Since we got back to the camp and everyone was dead." Ella said shrugging her shoulders
"Why, you love sleep." Emma asked
"Cora could control what I see and last time she did that she made me think Will was dead I'm not doing that again, I didn't know you paid attention to me."
"You not used to having someone look out for you?"
Ella burst out laughing and said, "Are you kidding me? I've got Will, I prefer being alone, I don't like attention."
"I feel like your mad at me." Emma said
"I am, I'm mad and pissed and furious and everything in between."
"Why?" Emma said cutting her off
"Why? Because you treat me like I'm younger than you and need protecting." She said jumping down from the tree, "And I have countless other reasons but Mary Margaret might be awake before I say all of them."
Emma stood up saying, "You are younger than me!"
"No I'm not! I'm older than your parents-"
"-Our parents." Emma cut her off
"Your parents. Emma I'm not Anna, I'm Ella. Ella bloody Scarlett and that is not going to change just because Regina messed with my voice, my personality and the way I look."
"The way you look?" Mulan questioned joining n on the conversation
"Yeah." Ella clicked her fingers above her head and around her hair was red smoke which when faded revealed that instead of just brown hair, she now had brown hair with green strips.
"The way I look." Ella said, smiling for the first time in a while, seeing that she had her part of Neverland with her.
"And by the way I see how you look at me, about what I did back at the camp, It's called surviving Emma and if you had lived here you would've understood that."
"I don't want to grow up here!" Emma yelled, "I don't want to kill someone, I don't want to become you, the person who I looked up to when I was a kid."
"Get a new role model, you don't have power here just because you broke the curse, I know people with ten times the magic you have." Ella said talking mostly about herself and Peter, their magic was stronger when they were together
"What like you? Regina? Cora? Gold? The villains." Emma said sitting back down on the floor.
"Yeah the villains,"
. . . .
Emma looked over at her mother when she woke up smiling, "Hey, you okay."
Ella looked down at them, noticing that Mary Margaret was okay and went back to zoning out of everything
She was still annoyed at Emma and always will be, She knew that she had done some bad things that most of them she wished she could take back, but no matter what she did she would always be seen as a villain, a monster to everyone.
The only people who didn't judge her were, Will because he was exactly the same, Jefferson, Peter, Alice and Cyrus the Genie.
Everyone else assumed upon hearing her name that she going to kill them or steal from them.
Ella looked down as she heard Emma say, "No."
"What?" Ella asked down.
"The compass is gone." Emma said looking around
Ella looked around from the tree and said, "So is Mulan."
. . . .
Ella shot an arrow, making it hit the tree right next to Mulan's head.
Mulan immediately stopped running.
Ella, Emma and Mary Margaret walked over to her as Ella re armed her bow and pointed at Mulan saying, "That was one of the few warning shots I have ever shot, move and it will go through your neck, Okay?"
"How'd you find me?" Mulan asked as she looked at them, arms raised
"I know a thing or two about tracking." Ella said with a smirk
"All we want is the compass," Emma said as she stepped next to Mary Margaret
Mulan turned around saying, "Very well."
Then Mulan pulled out her sword and Ella did the same throwing her bow down.
"You really want to fight me? Fine." Ella said as she lunged towards Mulan blocking her strike, Quickly kicking the sword out of her hand, falling to the ground and sweeping Mulan's feet from under her, placing one foot on her neck as she held her sword to Mulan's head.
"Give. Me. The. Compass." Ella said
"And seal Aurora's fate?" Mulan asked
Mary Margaret stepped beside Ella saying, "We learned how to overpower Cora, once we get what we need we will defeat her and Aurora will be free."
"Another journey. Just as I predicted there would be. Our best chance to save Aurora is to make that trade now-"
Mary Margaret cut her off saying, "-not going to happen, without that compass we can't get home."
"Then I hope you're prepared to use that sword." Mulan said to Ella who raised her eyebrow smirked and said
"Oh believe me I am."
"STOP!"
It was Aurora
"Okay, don't take this the wrong way, but who the hell did you get here?" Emma asked
Ella wondered the same thing as Aurora said, "Let Mulan go."
Ella threw the sword down but not moving her foot from it's position on her neck, "I said let her go!"
Ella reluctantly moved her foot and Mulan rolled of the ground saying, "Were you followed?"
"I- I don't think so. Cora may know I'm gone but she didn't see me escape." Aurora said, a glare still set on Ella.
"How did you escape." Ella said picking up her sword and re attaching it to her belt.
"It was Hook. He let me go." Aurora said which made Ella stop in her tracks
"Why?" She said picking up her bow
Aurora looked at Emma as she said, "Because of you. He said he wanted to prove to you that you should've trusted him. That if you would've trusted him, you could've defeated Cora together. That the two of you could've gotten the remains of the wardrobe, and that without him you'll have to go up against her all by yourself. He only wants to help. I... think he may care for you."
Ella had known Hook a long time and she learnt two things, one he didn't help and two if he liked someone he would say it straight to their face, not make gestures.
"Did you find a way to stop Cora?" Aurora asked.
Emma nodded, "Yes."
"Where are we going?" Aurora asked, and Ella noticed something wasn't right but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Rumpelstiltskin's cell." Emma answered
Aurora nodded and said, "Great lead the way."
Ella let Aurora go in front as the started walking to Gold's old cell. Ella made a note to watch the princess from now on.
Any suggestions feel free to comment
Vote and comment