I Know The End || Killian Jones

𝟷𝟶 - 𝚕𝚊𝚙𝚍𝚘𝚐

storybrooke, maine

— "SO I'M A PRISONER NOW?" Regina wondered aloud as David and Ajatri led her into the police station. Outside, Snow and Emma waited with the boys.

"If the curse is broken, why didn't we go back?" David demanded, pushing her into the office.

She turned to face him with a small smile that could have been victorious or bitter. There was no way to know. "Because there's nothing to go back to. That land is gone."

The pair of them froze, exchanging glances, David's shocked and Aja's full of suppressed horror and rage.

"David, why don't you go wait with your family." She gritted out. "I've got this."

He hesitated a moment, looking over her face. "Aja...?"

"Go." Nodding slowly, he did as she asked, leaving the wolf woman alone with the Queen. Aja's hand locked none too gently around Regina's arm, dragging her towards the cell on the other end of the room and practically throwing her in.

"No need to be so harsh." Regina grumbled, brushing off her arm as the door was slammed shut. "I thought we were friends."

Aja's eyes turned murderous, and she had to fight for a second for the responding glow in them to die out. "We are not friends Regina." She snarled. "You turned me into someone you could step on. You turned me into your lapdog." Her voice was thick with enough venom to bring down an elephant, making Regina flinch back slightly. "Did you think I'd be grateful that you destroyed me?? That you destroyed my family?? You took away my choices. But I am not your pet." She didn't wait for Regina to respond before storming back out of the station to find her friends and her brother.

When she stepped outside, Henry was getting into Ruby's car while Grey waited patiently. Emma turned to the woman when she noticed her emerge. "Hey." She breathed. "Ruby's taking Henry, just to keep him out of this mess right now. She can take Grey too, if you want."

Sighing, Aja shook her head, silently beckoning her brother back to her side. "No. He may not look it now, but he is a wolf, and the longer I put off teaching him the skills he'll need now that the curse is broken, the more danger he'll be in."

"Alright." Emma nodded after only a brief moment of hesitation, then patted the top of Ruby's car, giving the woman a nod. "Keep him safe, Ruby." David and Snow muttered between each other quickly before Emma returned. "You guys ready?"

"We need to talk." Snow said immediately, making David sigh heavily.

"I- well, I don't- I just- I don't wanna talk." Emma huffed.

"But I do, okay? Gold can wait, I can't. I mean... you're my daughter, and I wanna talk to you." David and Aja exchanged glances. "I know that we have talked, but we didn't know that we were talking. And we talked about things we shouldn't have even talked about – one night stands and the like."

David looked suddenly taken aback. "One night stands??"

"Whale." Snow replied quickly and tensely, making Aja want to snort out her lungs.

"Whale??"

"We were cursed! That is neither here nor there. The point is, we did not know that we were mother and daughter. And now we do. And so, please... let's talk."

"Should we go?" Aja wondered quietly.

"Oh God, no. Please stay." Emma replied quickly before turning her attention back to her mother. "Okay. What do you wanna talk about?"

Snow took a breath. "We're together, finally... and I can't help but think you're not happy about it?"

Emma looked at a loss for words for a second, as well as slightly guilty. "Oh, I am." She said finally. "But, see... Here's the thing. No matter what the circumstances, for 28 years, I only knew one thing: that my parents sent me away."