Chapter 1: It's Portal Time
Ever since he could remember, Harry had always had the same recurring nightmare. However, overtime, that nightmare took on new meaning. Before he recovered his memories and found out he was a wizard, he just associated bad things with flashing green light. Later on, he had been under the assumption it was residual memories of his "parents'" murders. At least, until he regained his memoires as Rumpelstiltskin. Then, he realized what that green light really was.
A portal. A portal he chose not to jump into, when he willingly abandoned his son.
It had haunted him from the moment he abandoned Bae all those years ago. When he knew who he was agian, the explanation for that haunting nightmare came so clear. And when he saw that light in the woods –well, to say the least he had a recurring sense of de ja vu. All over again.
Someone had conjured a portal in supposedly non-magical Storybrooke. And he was pretty sure based on the now—not wolf Graham—that that someone had been Regina.
Graham had been frantic as he relayed what happened with Regina at the diner, Harry wanted to slap him silly for being so careless around Regina.
"You actually fought back with her?" He asked.
"Of course," Graham said. "I had too. I take my position as sheriff seriously."
Enough to be transformed into a wolf, he shook his head thinking of the stupidity of the whole thing. While Emma just stared at Graham and said, "She turned you into a wolf?"
"Obviously, love." Harry said trying hard to snap. His patience was wearing. He was ready to find out what had occurred between Regina and Graham and then find Jaime. The only reason he wasn't already tracking down the boy, was because after having his heart pulled out of him by the Evil Queen once, he thought it was best to listen to all the facts before attacking.
"I know," Emma said, "But I didn't think Regina had magic. You made it seem like the curse weakened her power source."
"It should've." He said with a frown, "Was there anything different about her?"
Graham frowned, "Besides, the fact she was wearing a different face? She had a necklace."
"A necklace?"
"Yes, a green pendant."
Green pendant.
He had only seen one green pendant back in the day and that belonged to Regina's bat shit crazy half sister: Zelena. Who Regina had no idea even existed.
Mills family values, he thought, inwardly rolling his eyes. He didn't have much time to focus on that though. Mostly because his attention was on the portal. A portal that Regina had somehow manage to open and was coming from the area where the locator spell on Jaime seemed to indicate where he was.
The locator spell, that went off when it revealed that his son had been attacked by someone. Someone with magic.
He hadn't told Emma—who was still with him, much to his disdain—what he had felt. Or that there were some half ass wards around the area which he was currently trying to break but were holding out longer than he expected them too since he could no longer rely on Regina's stockpile of blood.
Emma frowned, "Can't you go a little faster."
He sighed heavily, "It's a little difficult. I ran out of Regina's blood, and I have to figure out what spell she put up. Warding was never her strength, but one can never be to careful. They can be nasty things."
Emma shook her head, "Forget I asked. God, I hate magic."
"You seemed to like it enough when I was able to perform a tracking spell," He said as he finally managed to note the power source of the wards.
And frowned, as he saw that the magic holing the wards down wasn't Regina's. In fact, he was pretty sure it was Zelena's. How was that possible?
He didn't dwell on it though, since he had managed to collapse the wards and was making his way towards where the portal was, and almost had a coronary with what he saw.
At the edge of the clearing, there was Jaime screaming at Regina who was trying to grab the boy. The boy was fighting back, but it was obvious he was upset and didn't want Regina touching him. In fact, he was shaking.
Harry was trying to figure out some way to approach the situation. But unfortunately, his wife had seen the same thing that was going on and had snapped as she ran up to Jaime and decked Regina.
That in itself would've had been a beauty to behold if Regina hadn't lost her grip on the boy and he fell. Fell into the green abyss and Regina started laughing hard as she stared at Emma with a fireball in her hand.
"You foolish girl," She snapped. "Haven't you realized by now, I'm going to get my happily ever after."
"Jaime," Emma croaked as she looked towards the portal which she couldn't jump into since Regina's large fireball holding ass was blocking the way.
"His name is Henry." She said, "Oh, thank God, I can call him that when I'm not actually talking to him. Your fuck buddy's order didn't work quite well."
Emma glared at her. "If you don't move out of my way right now, Regina, I am going to kill you."
The Evil Queen laughed much like Rumple knew she would. It seemed that Emma hadn't realized that this back and forth intrigued Regina.
Though, it also proved to be a distraction. As he thought this his eyes caught Emma's and he could tell that's what she wanted. For him to jump into the portal. To find their son, he couldn't though.
And it wasn't like it was with Bae.
Their daughter.
He had to protect their daughter.
Emma was completely helpless. Yes, he had performed simple protection spells on her, but Regina had been smart enough to turn Graham into a wolf. God knows, what she could do to Emma when she realized that fireball she was about to throw at her was completely useless. Which was why he resulted to waving his hand and causing Emma to disappear.
Well, he knew where she was appearing. Safe in their home, but she was undoubtedly going to be pissed. But there was no way in hell he was to let her end up as collateral damage with Regina.
Especially not with that baby in her belly. Not that you could see it with the concealing charms he had put on her. She didn't look even pregnant anymore. It was as if their child didn't even exist. It made his blood boil as he stared at Regina.
"So, you have magic?" She said since she was seeing him as Harry Potter and not as Ford Gold.
"You could say that." " He said eying her and eying the portal.
He knew it would only be open for a limited amount of time. He had to get to his son, God knows, where he was.
"What have you done, Regina?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She said the fireball in her hand growing larger. "You ruined my fun. I was looking so forward to having fried Emma."
"Haven't you done enough already?" Harry asked referring to her botched attempt at trying to kill his child, kidnapping his other child, and sending him God knows where. Oh, and yes, being pretty much a horrible person who murdered him.
Regina laughed, "I'm only getting what's mine."
"What's yours?"
She nodded. "Yes, what's mine. The boy is mine. Emma and you have no right to him. Everything was perfect until you intervened."
"Intervened?" He said, "You were abusing the boy?"
And of course she used this opportunity to throw a fireball at him, which he quickly dodged. And then before he could find his footing again, he found himself falling into the portal.
It had happened so fast. He couldn't make sense of it. One minute he was there about to have his final duel with Regina, then the next. The next he was lost in an abyss of green. He had no sense of control. Only that it seemed like he was falling into a bottomless pit, until he wasn't.
Suddenly, his vision became clear and he could make sense of things again. And then he saw his hands.
They were his old hands.
As in the hands he had in the Enchanted Forest all those years ago. The reptilian texture was back, so were the dark nails.
He was in Dark One form again—where the hell was he?
"Jaime?" He called.
And was startled when he heard his voice. It wasn't the voice that he was used to hearing for all these years. Gone was the crisp British accent of Harry Potter, of the Scottish brogue that he had when he was in Ford Gold form. Instead, instead, he sounded like the imp again.
He could almost feel the urge to giggle again, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye the portal was spitting out someone again: Regina.
She looked stunned, he guessed traveling portals did that to a person and he used this opportunity to throw a fireball at her.
And he hit his target perfectly. The bitch screamed. However, it didn't kill her like it should've. Because of her necklace.
Zelena's pendant.
How on Earth, he thought.
Never mind though, he knew what he had to do now.
"She'll never be as great as me." Zelena had told him after he and her had a training session.
He found Cora's bastard daughter an interesting specimen. Just as insane as anyone else in that family, Zelena was probably the most powerful Mills woman of all. Though, also the most annoying.
"Arrogance is a flaw, dearie." He said as he inwardly rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on, you really expect someone like that to set your curse?"
"Yes," He said. "It's Regina's purpose."
"But that's not fair, why can't I have a purpose? She can't even conjure a basic fireball. She probably doesn't even have a pendant to help center her powers."
"Pendant?" He asked.
Zelena then informed him, of how in Oz it was customary for amulets to be worn to help center and strengthen powers. A smart idea, but also not very pragmatic should someone decide to rip said necklace off their neck. Of course there were some safeguards…well, at least until he managed to figure out the loopholes to removing said necklace.
Which was why he was able to literally rip it from Regina's throat.
She gasped at him as he grabbed the jewel and squashed it with his boot.
"It was enchanted." She said as she stared at him, in shock.
"I broke the enchantment years ago." He said, "Zelena is easy to seduce."
Regina stared at him.
"Oh get your mind out of the gutter, Regina, I wouldn't sleep with that psycho. Like you, she wants power. It was so easy to let her think I was giving her a power booster. And that necklace…well, let's say it's no longer Dark One proofed. And you're out of power."
"I—I—"
She couldn't' say anything else without wincing since he had already pulled out heart.
He was surprised she was still living, it was that dark. Only the tinniest speck of red in there, he just shook his head. "You know, a preservation spell would've kept your heart in tact a little longer, dearie."
"Don't kill me." She snapped, "You'll regret it, imp."
"Will I?" He laughed as he squeezed her heart watching her wince. This was his dream for so many years. To watch her squirm as he got his revenge. "Because you'll be dead. And I don't think there's anything I'd regret about that."
"You'd have to explain to the boy that you killed me, Rumple. And he wouldn't like hearing that his father is a murderer." She said before adding, "I can't believe you were playing multiple roles all this time. And that I couldn't see it."
"Well, you were always the stupid one." He said.
"Shut up." She said.
Squeeze.
She winced. "Please…please…Rumple. Don't."
"Please, Rumple, don't." He mocked. "Do you even realize how pathetic you are?"
She just stared at him, "Don't kill me."
He laughed.
And laughed.
It was a little hard not too, considering what she did to him all those years ago. "Is this where you tell me to be the better person, your majesty? Because I believe I taught you that being the better person is over rated. You are going to die."
Regina looked at him and winced as he juggled her heart in his hands. "Then why haven't you killed me yet, Rumple?" She asked.
"Because I want to know where Jaime Potter is."
"You mean, your biological son." She said, "Again, can't believe I didn't figure out you Harry Potter and you were the same person. I bet Emma likes that. Or wait, does she even know? Surely, she had to notice something since she slept with both versions of you. I mean, I can't see you being that creative in bed."
He squeezed her heart, this time it might've been a little too hard since he felt the texture start to change. He quickly released his hold, to see Regina a pale shade of white.
"We're not talking about me or my behavior in the bedroom, dearie. I want to know where Jaime is."
"Don't know…" She managed to say. "He should be here somewhere. The boy probably is hiding, he's always been a menace."
He squeezed again. This time her eyes almost popped out.
"I want the truth, Regina."
"I told you…" She said, "I don't know where he is. Little brat wanted to get away. God, I can't believe I was raising your demon spawn. Explains why the kid was psychotic."
And he had had enough. It was all so anticlimactic in the end. He just squeezed her heart until it was dust and he threw the ashes the ground as her body fell onto the forest floor.
Regina was dead.
The woman he had nightmares about on pretty much a regular basis was no more. Destroying her had been ridiculously simple, hardly the final battle that he was expecting. Save for the brief fireball fight they had before he traveled via portal and was able to figure out what was powering the bitch up.
He shook his head as he looked at the remains of the green pendant he was holding.
Zelena's magic.
How Regina gotten it was beyond him, but he had it now. And now that the witch was dead, all he had to do was find his son and find a way to get back home.
And then he started laughing, Laughing at how ironic the entire situation was. He had only taken on Regina to be able to create the curse to get to his son. And in the end, she had helped him travel realms—twice—but she had taken him away from his love ones. And God knows, Jaime.
His son was out there somewhere probably scared half to death, and unless Rumple could find a spare bean or a mermaid it looked like they were going to be stuck in this realm for a while.
Which sucked.
Maybe Regina had a bean lying around…the fact that he was going to have to do a search on the dead woman gave him the creeps. He was about to go through her pockets when he heard someone come up from behind him.
"Rumple?"
He turned around to see Cora looking at him.
Freaking Cora.
As in Regina's not so dead mother, who was supposed to be dead or in Wonderland. He heard a variety of different rumors. It didn't matter. It was Cora.
As in his ex girlfriend who gave birth to the psychotic bitch he just killed.
"Cora, I thought you were dead or in Wonderland."
She glared at him, "Obviously, not. Is that Regina?"
"Yes," He said, "Your psychopath daughter finally met her maker. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not."
Honestly, he didn't exactly know how Cora was going to react. Her relationship with Regina had always been precarious at best. Regina had, after all, thrown her into another realm—at his suggestion, but still—and he knew for a fact Regina had wanted the woman dead. He knew that Cora probably wasn't exactly the Evil Queen's number one fan, but still her daughter was lying there dead on the forest floor and it was pretty easy to put two and two together and realize how Regina ended up dead on the forest floor.
Cora sighed heavily, "I'm assuming you were provoked. Actually, I know you were provoked. She told me she killed you, Rumple."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Surely, your wondering how I got back to this realm." She said, "After all, you were the one who had me trapped in Wonderland."
"I wasn't the one who pushed you in the mirror, dearie."
"Touché." She said smiling at him. "I would tell you that I was heartbroken when I found out that you were dead, but that wouldn't be true."
He rolled his eyes, "Spare the heart puns, dearie."
"It is good to see you, Rumple." She said, "But the circumstances—what did she do?"
"You should be asking what didn't she do." He said, "I suppose you're going swear vengeance on her death now."
Cora started laughing as if he said something hilarious.
Honestly, the whole scene was a little surreal. She should be full of grief and anger, but instead she looked at him as if he said some big joke.
"Don't be absurd, Rumple. I am not that stupid. Not like Regina was. I can't believe she actually thought she killed you."
"Surely, you were suspicious." He said, "About her claims."
She shrugged. "I honestly didn't have much time to focus on them, Rumple. She wanted her revenge and she got it."
"And yet you're here." He said.
"I faked my death, same as you. And I froze myself in this realm until her little curse broke."
He frowned, "The curse broke?"
"I'm assuming so," Cora said. "Otherwise, I still would be frozen. Time is moving again here. Regina's curse stopped time."
He nodded, as he wondered if Emma did break the curse. There really hadn't been anything curse breaking worthy that he could tell in the past few hours. And no one in Storybrooke besides Graham knew their past curse identity it didn't make sense.
She gave you mouth to mouth, a little voice in the back of his head said.
She doesn't love you though, it wouldn't have been true love's kiss.
No, something else had to wake Cora up.
"Why are you here, Rumple?" She asked breaking him away from his thoughts. "I mean, it's not bad to see you, darling. In fact, I'm glad you're here. It's just why. What happened?"
He thought about it for a moment what to tell her. Obviously, not the truth. For one thing, he didn't want Cora knowing about Emma or Jaime. He didn't trust the woman. While she wasn't actively trying to kill him right now, he knew her well enough to know that she would want something at one point.
She had fooled him once, and that one time was too many.
"It's a long story," He said. "To make it short, your daughter somehow had a magic bean and thought it would be fun to jump realms again and I somehow got dragged along for the ride."
"A magic bean," Cora said. "I thought those were rare."
They were.
At least they were supposed to be.
But apparently Regina had a stockpile of them, something that he was a little surprise about. Or at the very least she had access to one, which might've been enough to be a stockpile of sorts.
"Well, apparently Regina was an obtainer of rare antiquities." He said rolling his eyes.
"I don't think magic beans are antiquities." She said scowling her pert nose not getting the half-baked pop culture reference.
Though, she was wrong. Magic beans were relative antiquities, since the giants that had cultivated them had been destroyed for decades. He was actually surprised that there still existed some beans in this world.
"You'd be surprise at how old they are," He said, "Needless to say, I want to go back from where I came from."
Cora raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, don't look at me that way. I know that you made a life in your realm away from this realm too, your majesty."
Cora started laughing and clapping her hands. "So, you turned the tables against Regina then? Excellent. I suppose they call you 'your majesty' in the world without magic."
'Yes." He said, it wasn't a lie. But he hadn't exactly taken over Storybrooke. Just magical Britain.
"Then we must get you back," Cora said. "Though, a king isn't anything with a queen, is he?"
He gave her a look.
"Rumple?"
"I don't get where you're going with this."
"Do you, darling?" She said, "A king needs a queen."
He had heard that, over and over again. Skeeter and the lot of them had been going on and on about how Harry needed to settle down with a nice witch for years. Too bad neither of them or Cora knew he already had a queen.
Queen Emma.
He quite liked that.
He was pretty sure Cora hadn't meant him to start fantasizing about his wife in a tiara and nothing else though—she was up to something else.
Something that involved her becoming queen, he thought, inwardly rolling his eyes. The last thing he ever wanted to do was get involved with Cora again. But at the same time, he didn't want to show his hand.
"My aren't you still the ambitious one."
She shrugged. Though, she was now decades older than when they first got involved, Cora always had an air about her that made her extremely attractive or now that he actually knew her dangerous.
"I'm just talking reason. You deserve a queen by your side and when we get back to your realm, I expect you to crown her. Do we have a deal?"
He nodded. For once, he didn't even have to twist her words since he already had his queen.