The Life We Will Fight For

The secret door

„A magic door!", Ariel exclaimed, all of a sudden, and the group turned their heads.

„What did you say?", asked Snow.

„A magic door in... in the forest somewhere... in a little house... an inconspicuous hut!"

„Is that Regina talking?"

„To reunite the realms."

„That's right!", said Killian, „We don't need the queen's help! Regina has done it before and she can do it again."

„So then all we need to do is find this hut?", asked Zelena, „Or this... door?"

„There's a riddle... like, a password or something. A test to open it. Only once it's open, the realm will reunite with the rest."

„What kind of door is this?", asked Henry.

„She says she put them in herself, one in each one of the realms, as a safety switch. In case she'd ever need to banish an entire realm for whatever reason. Only she knows how to manipulate those doors."

„She and... probably any other version of her...", David concluded.

„... which is why this Evil Queen knew how to close it!", added Snow.

„But she should be able to direct you from Storybrooke, Ariel?", asked Henry, „Can you open that door?"

She looked at them, skeptical herself, but nodded. „I think so. She'll guide me."

„Alright, then", said Robin, grabbing the new bow and quiver full of arrows that the group had given him after his escape from the queen's dungeons, „What are we waiting for? I have a birth to get to in a few weeks... and time's running out."

[A few days later, back in Storybrooke]

„Think!!", the queen yelled at her better half, repeatedly, as she was huddled over the mermaid's thumping heart in its velvet box.

„Gosh, I'm trying to, if you'd only stop shouting!!"

„Where is that stupid hut?"

„How many of those doors do I need to remember, do you think? And this is a forest, everything looks the same!"

„Didn't you write it down anywhere? They just got lost again, didn't they?"

„Because you're not helping!!"

„What should I do?! I have no idea where your stupid hut is", she defended herself, running her hand over her round belly, trying to calm down her daughter.

Regina was suffering from heavy cramps again as well, she could see it, even though she desperately tried to appear like nothing was wrong. And slowly, but surely, Regina herself started to wonder how much longer she would be able to endure this pregnancy if Killian wasn't coming back home to them anytime soon. It almost killed her inside, knowing that that mermaid could just flip her fins a few times and be with the man she loved, and just for that she sometimes wanted to crush her heart to dust. But since Ariel was their only hope right now, that would be more than stupid...

„You may not have placed those doors, but you know me better than I care to admit, so... I'm sure if you just think, you might just figure it out. If you think of the Wishrealm... where would YOU have put it?"

„I've never been there, Regina!"

„Just think of it as a slightly twisted copy of the Enchanted Forest."

She rolled her eyes, then started to focus.

„I don't know", she said with a shrug, „Our mother's estate? The stables... Daniel's grave?"